Energy and Buildings 66 (2013) 267–273

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Energy and Buildings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild

Experimental investigation of new biocomposite with low cost for

thermal insulation
Mourad Chikhi a,b, Boudjemaa Agoudjil a,∗, Abderrahim Boudenne c, Abdelkader Gherabli a
a
Laboratoire de Physique, Energétique Appliquée (LPEA), Université El-Hadj-Lakhdar Batna, 1 rue chahid Boukhlouf Mohamed El-hadi, 05000 Batna, Algeria
b
Unité de Développement des Equipements Solaires UDES/EPST CDER, Route Nationale N◦ 11 BP 386, Bou-Ismail, 42415 Wilaya de Tipaza, Algeria
c
Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC)/CERTES, 61 Av. du Général de Gaulle, 94010 Créteil Cedex, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This work aimed to develop a new biocomposite material that could be used as thermal insulation in build-
Received 10 April 2013 ings. The goal was to investigate experimentally the effect of date palm fibers DPF (Phoenix dactylifera
Received in revised form 10 June 2013 L. from Biskra oasis in Algeria) on thermal conductivity, water absorption and mechanical properties of
Accepted 7 July 2013
gypsum based materials. Biocomposites containing various DPF filler contents and two different sizes
of DPF were prepared. The results showed that the thermal conductivity of the gypsum based materials
Keywords:
decreases with increasing the DPF concentration. We have shown that DPF loading may induce a high
Thermal insulation
effect on the mechanical and thermal properties of the composites than the size fiber effect. The compres-
Building materials
Date palm fiber
sive and flexural strength of the biocomposites can be improved by adding the adequate fibers contents.
Biocomposites This new kind of biocomposites exhibit good thermal and mechanical performances which allow it to be
Thermal and mechanical properties applied as thermal insulation materials.
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction thus regarded as “green agglomerate”. The combination of inor-

ganic binder material such as gypsum with waste fibers has been
The thermal insulation materials play an important role in considered an interesting option for material recycling and green
achieving building’s energy efficiency. Many kinds of thermal building [3].
insulation materials in buildings are available. Among all, as The use of natural fibers has many advantages such as, being
environment-friendly and renewable materials, natural materi- derived from a renewable resource; they require a low energy
als have numerous advantages over other materials and thus are inputs in their manufacture. A major advantage is that they can
the most promising for building. That is why there have been be easily disposed of at the end of their life cycle by composting or
many experimental investigations and a great deal of interest has by recovery of their calorific value in a furnace, which is not possible
been created worldwide on potential applications of natural fibers with glass fibers [4,5].
as reinforced composites in recent years. Preservation of natural The properties of natural composites depend on the matrix,
resources such as natural fibers forced the composite industry to fibers, and on their interfacial bonding [6]. The adhesion between
search and examine “ecofriendly” components [1,2]. the reinforcing fibers and the matrix in composite materials plays
The building sector is a large consumer of resources (materials an important role in the final mechanical and physical properties
and energy), highly polluting (emission of CO2 ), and a generator of the material. Natural fibers, in general, have been used by sev-
of residues. Therefore, in the search of a sustainable building con- eral authors in order to improve thermal insulating, mechanical
struction, attentions turn to research on agglomerates of minor and physical properties of composite materials. For the thermal
energetic consumption and to the adequate use of industrial and insulating composites, Khedari et al. [7] developed a new low
agro-industrial waste. Comparing to the cement and lime, the cost board from durian peel and coconut coir mixture with a
industrial process of plaster production generates less anhydrous lower thermal conductivity, which was effective for energy sav-
carbon (CO2 ) and reveals the lowest energy consumption, being ing when used as ceiling and wall insulating material. Xu et al.
[8] presented a low density binderless composite from kenaf core,
with a thermal conductivity similar to those of insulation material
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +213 33819895; fax: +213 33819895. (i.e., rock wool). Ashour et al. [9] have developed a biocompos-
E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (B. Agoudjil). ite with low density and thermal conductivity based on wheat
URL: http://www.lab.univ-batna.dz/lpea/ (B. Agoudjil). straw, barley straw and wood shavings filled gypsum materials

0378-7788/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.07.019
268 M. Chikhi et al. / Energy and Buildings 66 (2013) 267–273

for using as an insulating building materials. The results revealed

that the reinforcement fibers have greater effect on the thermal
conductivity.
In other side, Panesar and Shindman [10] examined the impact
of cork as sand replacement or stone for the mortar and concrete on
the thermal and mechanical properties. The results showed that the
increasing on the cork size reduces the cube strength and increases
the total porosity. Thus that the concentration of cork has a more
significant effect on the mechanical, microstructure and thermal
resistance properties of concrete–cork composites than cork size
or cork gradation. This result is supported by [11] using sisal and
eucalyptus fibers as reinforcement in cement based matrices only
for the investigation of physical properties. Moreover the authors
indicate that the type of fibers was the key to improve the mechan-
ical properties [11]. Pinto et al. [12] studied the use of corn’s cobas
a sustainable building material for thermal insulation. It was con-
cluded that the corn’s cob may have adequate thermal properties
for building purpose.
The most important property of a thermal building insulation Fig. 1. Size distribution of various DPF.
material or solution is the thermal conductivity, where the goal
is to decrease its value as much as possible [10]. Information on 5 min. (iii) The blending is versed quickly in the mold. The
thermal conductivity of materials is necessary for determining the mechanical and the thermophysical experiments were per-
optimum conditions during processing of materials, as well as for formed using samples of dimensions 40 mm × 40 mm × 160 mm
analyzing heat transport in materials during practical applications and 150 mm × 150 mm × 50 mm, respectively.
[13]. In the other hand, the knowledge of physical and mechanical It is noticed that, the composites samples HG/DPF3 correspond
behaviors of composites is also very important in order to optimize to (A) DPF filled gypsum matrix and HG/DPF6 correspond to the (B)
the application limits. DPF one.
The aim of this study was the development of a new biocom-
posite material used for thermal insulation in building or in the 2.3. Water absorption
solar thermal panels with low thermal conductivity and density,
using a natural low cost gypsum-fiber component material. The Water absorption tests were conducted according to ASTM
mechanical performance of this composite was also analyzed. D570, which investigate the increase of the material weight after
exposure to water. The composite samples were dried at 65 ◦ C until
2. Experimental constant weight for 7 days before water absorption experiments.
The water absorption capacity of composites was measured at
2.1. Materials days 14 and 28. The weight gain is calculated using the following
formula (Eq. (1)):
In this study, the date palm wood was used as inclusions. It wm − wd
H(%) = × 100 (1)
was collected in Algeria from Laghrous (province of Biskra-Algeria). wd
These oases are known as the region for growing Deglet-Noor date
where H (%) is the moisture content (%), wm is the moist weight (g)
centers.
at time (t) and wd is the dry weight (g).
The petiole and the rachis are dried under natural conditions and
grinded into a crusher to produce small fibers. The thermophysical
and dielectric properties, the morphology and the chemical com- 2.4. Mechanical testing
position of the date palm wood used in this study were presented
in previous work [14]. In this work, two different sizes of the date Compressive and flexural strength tests were carried out accord-
palm wood are used. The sieving method is used for the separation ing to ASTM Standard. For each test and type of composite, three
of fine from coarse materials. The fibers size distribution of the date specimens were tested and the average values are reported. The
palm wood according to standard NF P18-560 is presented in Fig. 1. mechanical strength tests were conducted according to NF EN
From this figure, it is clear to see two different fibers sizes namely 1015-11, 2000.
(A) with a mean diameter of 3 mm and (B) with a mean diameter of A flexural Testing Machine (Model: Controls L15-005 Fuse 0.5A,
6 mm. The hemihydrate gypsum (HG) used as matrix was provided German) with speed charge of 50 N/s was used for the flexural
by Knauf Algeria® company. strength test. The flexural strength was measured with the three-
point bending method, and the flexural strength is calculated from
Eq. (2) [15]
2.2. Composites preparation
Fl
Rf = 1.5 (2)
The composite samples were prepared with seven different bd2
mass fractions of 0, 1.2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10% of date palm fibers, and where Rf is the flexural strength [MPa], b and d are respectively
tested for the mechanical properties under fourteen and twenty- the weight and the thickness of the sample [mm], F is the maxi-
eight days. mum load applied on flexural test [N] and l is the distance between
The samples were prepared by: (i) mixing hemihydrate gyp- carrying rollers [mm].
sum powder and water with a water/gypsum ratio of 0.6 The compressive Testing Machine of 100 kN (Model: elec-
in the automatic Perrier blender, in the laboratory environ- tromechanical Universal Testing Machine Controls, German, using
ment (at room temperature and air humidity of 75%) during Xpert Master 7.11 Materials Testing software) was used for Com-
5 min. (ii) Fibers were added to the mixture and mixed during pressive strength test at a cross head speed of 10 mm/min and
 M. Chikhi et al. / Energy and Buildings 66 (2013) 267–273 269

Fig. 3. Water content of HG/DPF composites at days 14 and 28.

Fig. 2. Water absorption of HG/DPF composites filled with large (B) DPF size.

charge of 10 N/min. The compressive strength was determined

by applying a load to the broken parts of the original specimen can clearly see that the increase of the fibers content induces a
(40 mm × 40 mm × 160 mm) used for the flexural strength test, the higher saturation time.
average of six samples results for each concentration is reported. We notice that water absorption is important after 15 min and
The compressive strength is calculated from Eq. (3) [15] this for whole composites. The exposure to water during 15 min for
composites loading with 0, 5, 7, and 10% of coarser fibers, allows
Fc
Rc = (3) water absorption of 80, 90, 83 and 82%, respectively. However, the
A
water content evolution in these composites from 1 h to 4 days is
where Rc is the compressive strength [MPa], Fc is the maximum load less significant, with slight increases of 0.63, 1.4, 4 and 9%, for the
applied on compressive test [N] and A is the cross-section [mm2 ]. concentrations cited above. The equilibrium was reached after 1
For three point flexural and compressive tests, three specimens day for the Neat HG and after 4 days for HG/PDF 10%. It is clearly
were prepared for each kind of studied biocomposites with differ- shown that the water absorption (%) increases with the increasing
ent ages (14 and 28 days). The dry samples were dried at 65 ◦ C until of the fibers loading. The hydrophilic character of the date palm
constant weight [16]. wood led to high moisture absorption of the gypsum composites.
This result is reported by Ashour et al. [9] which have studied the
2.5. Thermal testing water effect on natural fibers filled plaster materials. The absorp-
tion occurs rapidly at the beginning of exposure of the matter with
The thermal conductivity of the composite samples are achieved water; however, after time, the absorption rate slows down until
according to NFISO 8894-1 2nd edition 15/05/2010 using the CT- reaching the point of equilibrium. The velocity of the water absorp-
meter device [17]. The measurement technique is based on the hot tion in composites is related to the water filling time of the voids
wire method and allows the estimation of the thermal conductivity present in the DPF. This behavior is mostly noted for composites
of a material from the variation of the temperature measured by a reinforced with natural fibers [18].
thermocouple placed near a resistive wire. The probe is constituted Fig. 3 shows the evolution of water content of gypsum based
with resistive wire and thermocouple in an insulating support of composites filled with seven different mass fractions of DPF3 and
kapton that is placed between two samples of the material to be DPF6 at days 14 and 28.
characterized. The heating period is chosen by the user depend- It seems that adding 1.2% of DPF6 in gypsum induces an increase
ing on the material to be tested and the type of sensor used. The in the water content of 12 and 7% at days 14 and 28, respectively.
results are displayed directly on the device screen. The accuracy With the same fiber concentration, the addition of DPF3 results in
of this setup is 5%, the temperature range of measurement test is an increase of 19% and 3% of water content at days 14 and 28. This
from 20 to 30 ◦ C for thermal conductivity materials from 0.01 to result indicates that incorporation of low quantity of DPF in gypsum
10 W m−1 K−1 . increases the water content of the composite. A similar behavior
Thirty samples of different gypsum based composites were used was discussed by the authors of [19]. They investigated the effect
for the thermal conductivity test. All the specimens were dried in of the water absorption and relative humidity inside the straw bale
a drying oven at 65 ◦ C and weighted each 24 h until a heat loss less wall. They revealed that the increasing of the straw bale in the plas-
than 1% during 24 h. Afterward, the surfaces of all samples were pol- ters increases the water absorption and the humidity in the plaster.
ished to achieve smooth surfaces in order to insure a good thermal This result is in agreement with our composite behavior.
contact between the sensor surface and the specimen. Increasing the DPF loading in gypsum from 1.2 to 10% at 28 days
induces a water loss of 6% and 5% using DPF3 and DPF6 , respec-
3. Results and discussions tively. This remark illustrates that the water rate decreases with
the increasing of the age of samples.
3.1. Water effect The water content depends strongly on the absorbing water
capacity of fibers. This observation was reported by Panesar and
A water resistance of the composites is an important parame- Shindman [10] which indicate that the water content in the
ter mainly when natural fiber is applied. Fig. 2 presents the water composite based cement materials depends on the cork water
absorption of HG/DPF composites filled with large DPF size (B). We absorption capacity.
270 M. Chikhi et al. / Energy and Buildings 66 (2013) 267–273

3.2.1. Compressive strength

Fig. 4 shows the compressive strength of two DPF sizes rein-
forced gypsum composites at days 14 and 28. By comparison to
the neat gypsum sample (100% gypsum), composites containing
1.2% DPF3 show a decrease of 58% of compressive strength at 14
days and 15% at 28 days. With the same conditions test (concentra-
tion and days) using DPF6 loading, we have obtained a lower mean
compressive strength (i.e., 45% at 14 days and 4% at 28 days). We
observe that the loss of compressive strength of the whole com-
posites is less at day 28. This behavior is related to the lower rate of
hydratation in the composites, which was also observed by [10]. We
have shown that the compressive strength of composites GH/DPF3
is higher than the GH/DPF6 for the DPF loading up to 5%. This result
is expected due to the lower DPF density and to the specific surface
of DPF6 which is higher.
The compressive strength of both biocomposite series decreases
with increasing the fibers content (i.e., for 10% of DPF loading, the
compressive strength of composites decreases of 14% for DPF3 and
Fig. 4. Compressive strength of two sizes DPF reinforced gypsum composites at days
14 and 28.
63% for DPF6 ). This behavior was also noted by [21,22] for cork
fibers and cotton stalk fibers reinforced gypsum, respectively. They
revealed that when the fiber load increased, the weak interfacial
area between the fiber and matrix increased, which consequently
decreases the compressive strength. A similar behavior is observed
in this study for the compressive strength of DPF reinforced gypsum
materials.
According to authors of [21], the incorporation of 20% weight of
cork based gypsum produces a compressive strength of 2.34 MPa.
In contrast, according to our study, we reach a value of 7.32 MPa
with 5% of DPF3 and 8.2 MPa with 1.2% of DPF6 . This comparison
revealed that the compressive strength of HG/DPF composites is
greater than the one of cork filled gypsum. This comparison allows
us to show that the date palm fibers and plaster are mutually more
compatible.

3.2.2. Flexural strength

The flexural strength for different loadings of two DPF sizes rein-
forced gypsum composites at days 14 and 28 is shown in Fig. 5.
One can see that the flexural strength of the mixture containing
1.2% DPF3 decreased of 45% at 14 days and 33% at 28 days. While,
Fig. 5. Flexural strength of two sizes DPF reinforced gypsum composites at days 14 with the DPF6 fillers at the same conditions test (concentration
and 28. and days) we obtained a lower mean flexural strength of 31% and
26% at these days. It is illustrated that up to 2% of fibers loading;
the HG/DPF3 composites exhibit a higher flexural strength than
The result revealed that the DPF3 based gypsum composites
HG/DPF6 . A decrease of 32% is observed for composites filled with
contains a high rate of water comparing to composites filled with
10% of DPF6 and of 10% for 10% of DPF3 . So, the loss of water resulted
DPF6 . This can be related to the composites processing method.
in considerable shrinkage of the matrix, hence reducing the bond-
Due to their small surface, the small fibers are more able to retain
ing strength between fiber and matrix. When the bonding strength
water. According to the literature [20], the water content increases
between fiber and matrix decreases, the flexural strength behavior
with the increasing of fibers sizes. We can explain this behavior by
of the composites is poor. This result is in agreement with the work
the fact that during the composites preparation, the DPF6 have not
of Li et al. [23] relating to the study of the mechanical properties of
enough time to absorb the water until its saturation. On the other
hemp filled concrete materials.
side, the DPF3 retains high amount of water in a small time. Thus,
If we compare our result with other studies of the literature
the water content in fibers depends on two principal parameters:
such as [22] that used cotton stalk fibers and slag reinforced gyp-
specific surface of fibers and time of exposure to water.
sum at a ratio of 2:3:5 by weight, indicated a maximum value of
5.60 MPa of flexural strength. In our case, we reach a maximum
3.2. Mechanical properties value of 3.65 MPa using 3% of DPF3 . This value is lower than the one
obtained for the gypsum filled with cotton stalk fibers. However, we
The addition of natural fibers in the gypsum causes an important notice that for the work presented by [22], the composites have 3%
difference on its mechanical performance, mainly the flexural and weight of slag which may improve the flexural strength. So, we can
compressive properties. In this paper two parameters are studied confirm that the DPF based gypsum composites exhibited a good
namely, fiber content and fiber size. flexural strength performance.
The compressive and flexural strength of the DPF reinforced Indeed, the mechanical properties (compressive and flexural
gypsum biocomposites for different fiber loadings and sizes under strength) of HG/DPF composites investigated in this research show
different ages (with natural drying) are shown in Figs. 4 and 5 that this new biocomposites can replace the gypsum board in build-
respectively. ing construction materials.
 M. Chikhi et al. / Energy and Buildings 66 (2013) 267–273 271

Fig. 7. Density of HG/DPF composite.

Fig. 6. Thermal conductivity of HG/DPF composites.

3.3. Thermal properties

3.3.1. Thermal conductivity

Fig. 6 shows the variation of the thermal conductivity of HG/PDF
composites for two fiber sizes and for five different loadings. One
can see that when the DPF loading increases, a significant decrease
of thermal conductivity is produced. This result is due to the impor-
tant difference between the thermal conductivities of the materials
used. Similar behavior to the thermal conductivity was reported by
[9] using the same matrix. The authors investigated the thermal
conductivity of three types of fibers, wheat straw, barley straw and
wood shavings as fiber reinforcement for plaster. In our case, the
thermal conductivity of composites filled with 10% of DPF3 is 62%
lower than the thermal conductivity of neat gypsum. Even with the
same fraction of DPF6 , the thermal conductivity value is decreased
by 66%. Then, it can be concluded that the effect of DPF size, on the
thermal properties is less obvious. Similar behavior was obtained
Fig. 8. Comparison between thermal conductivity and density of HG/DPF compos-
by the authors of [10] who studied the impact of cork size on the
ites.
thermal conductivity of concrete.

3.3.2. Thermal conductivity and density correlation [11], which indicates that the physical properties of cement-based
Table 1 summarized the densities and the thermal conductiv- matrices reinforced with sisal and eucalyptus fibers were highly
ity measurements of composite samples filled with two DPF sizes. influenced by the fiber content.
The evolution of composites density is presented in Fig. 7. It can be The relationship between the dried density and thermal con-
noticed that reaching 10% of DPF3 loading, the density of the con- ductivity of the HG/DPF composites is shown in Fig. 8. It can be
trol specimen reduced from 1130 to 743 kg m−3 , which presents seen, that the thermal conductivity of composites increases when
a decreasing of 43%. This is expected to be due to the lower DPF the density increases. This shows a direct relationship between
density. This result is in agreement with others studies as [9,10], composites density and thermal conductivity. Increasing air voids
which indicate that the density decreased with loading of the nat- leads to decrease the density of the composites, yielding higher
ural fibers in matrix. For 10% of DPF fibers, the densities values are thermal resistance and lower thermal conductivity. Besides, the
similar for the two fiber sizes. It seems that there is no effect of fibers results indicate that the effect of concentration of DPF has a
size on the densities of the composites at low concentrations (<10% greater impact on the thermal conductivity and density of com-
of DPF). This result was in agreement with the work presented by posites than the effect of DPF size. This is in accordance with
the study of [10], where the authors indicate that the concen-
Table 1
tration of cork particles has a greater influence on the thermal
Physical properties of HG/DPF composites. conductivity and density of concrete than the effect of the cork
size.
Fibers loading (%) Composite materials
The comparison between our results and those of Li et al. [21], for
HG/DPF3 HG/PDF6 the same matrix(gypsum materials), allows us to conclude that the
k [W m−1 K−1 ]  [kg m−3 ] k [W m−1 K−1 ]  [kg m−3 ] mean values of k and  of composites studied in this work are close
to the k and  values of insulating building materials. The thermal
Neat HG 0.449 1130.48 – –
1.2 0.234 923.44 0.213 993.47
conductivity and density range of cork/gypsum is 0.12 W m−1 K−1
5 0.200 887.17 0.181 890.35 and 578 kg m−3 , while this research shows 0.15 W m−1 K−1 and
7 0.186 760.2 0.16 800.93 753 kg m−3 . This indicates that our results values are close to the
10 0.177 743.13 0.15 753.65 cork/gypsum composite.
272 M. Chikhi et al. / Energy and Buildings 66 (2013) 267–273

Table 2
Comparison of thermal conductivity and density of HG/DPF composites with some materials used for thermal insulation in building.

Materials k [ W m−1 K−1 ]  [kg m−3 ] References

HG/DPF (10%) 0.15–0.17 753 This work

Gypsum neat 0.44 1130 This work
Gypsum/cork (20%) 0.12–0.19 578–864 [21]
Concrete/cork (10%) 0.96 2100 [10]
Lightweight gypsum composites (5% perlite) 0.12 547 [24]
Cement/hemp shives (40%) 0.11 1040 [25]
Plaster/Wheat fiber (25%) 0.33 1699 [9]
Plaster/Barley fiber (25%) 0.29 1617 [9]
Plaster/Wood shaving (25%) 0.28 1605 [9]
Concrete/durian (30%) 0.18 950 [7]
Concrete/coconut (30%) 0.17 770 [7]

3.3.3. Comparison with natural insulating composites We think that the high availability and the low cost of noncom-
Table 2 shows the comparison of thermal conductivity and den- mercial DPF waste may constitute a good opportunity for a serious
sity of some composites filled with natural fibers. These composites proposal of sustainable materials for thermal insulation in building.
are applied as construction materials building for thermal insu-
lation [9,21]. These measured values indicate that the composite Acknowledgements
investigated in this study presents a good thermal performance
compared to other composites as shown in Table 2. The authors would like to thank Dr. N. Kasbadji Merzouk director
This revealed that except for the gypsum filled on cork par- of UDES, for their support and help through this work. The Authors
ticles and for the cement concrete reinforced with hemp shives wish to express their gratitude to the National Center of Studies
composites; our HG/DPF composite, exhibits both lower thermal and Research Integrated to the Building (CNERIB) Algeria, for their
conductivity and density. However, it is interesting to highlight help during the experimental work.
that the concentration on DPF (10%) is 2 and 4 times lower than
both concentrations on cork (20 wt.%) and hemp shives (40 vol.%),
respectively. Consequently, the DPF amount appropriate to pro- References
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