Development of Airlaid Non-Woven Panels for Building’s Thermal Insulation

Abstract

As the need to ensure thermal comfort in buildings is constantly evolving, new technologies continue to emerge with the aim to develop efficient thermal insulation materials. This study aims to explore a textile technology using Airlaid process to develop non-woven fabrics made of natural fibers extracted from Posidonia Oceanica’s waste for assessing their suitability for insulation products in construction field. This technology offers the feature to develop isotropic non-woven structures by orienting randomly the fibers on the fabric surface. The web composed of a mixture of Posidonia Oceanica fibers and a proportion of thermoplastic fibers is then thermally bonded in an oven followed by cooling in order to ensure the solidification of the bonding areas. The prepared panels are then analyzed for the thermal conductivity. It was found that their thermal conductivity is close to commonly used thermal insulation materials, ranging between 0.03515 W/m.K and 0.03957 W/m.K, which allows the non-woven panels to compete with widely-used insulation materials for building’s field. The second part of this work aims to determinate the Posidonia panel's resistance to five common mold types in buildings (Aspergillus niger, Penicilumfuniculosum, Trichoderma viride, Chaetomium globosum, Paecilomycesvariotii). In fact, at high moisture content, molds are likely to develop on cellulosic materials affecting indoor air quality and eventually causing a variety of health risks to occupants. However, optic microscope results showed no growth of molds on the Posidonia samples which allows conceiving reliable thermal insulation materials.