Use of coconut fiber as a low-cost thermal insulator
- Univ. of the West Indies, St. Augustine (Trinidad and Tobago)
Cost is one of the major factors to be considered when choosing a thermal insulator. Design engineers continuously strive to provide the best at the lowest possible cost. In the tropics climate conditions are essentially hot and humid and a cause for daily discomfort. To some extent, air-conditioning of buildings has solved this problem. The major deterrent to air-conditioning is the exorbitant cost of imported thermal insulation materials. This has prompted a search for local, low-cost but effective thermal insulation for buildings. Coconut fiber is available at minimal cost from the copra industry in Trinidad, as it is a waste product from the coconut. The viability of using coconut fiber as building thermal insulation was explored by conducting thermal conductivity tests on 200 mm X 400 mm X 60 mm thick slab-like specimens. The test equipment used was a locally designed constant temperature hot box apparatus. This apparatus was designed to test slab-like specimens under steady-state conditions. The reliability if this experimental set up was checked using Gypsum Plaster. The thermal conductivity test results for coconut fiber over the density range 30 kg/m{sup 3} to 115 kg/m{sup 3} showed the characteristic hooked shape graph for fibrous material. For the 60 mm thick specimens at a mean temperature of 39 C, a minimum thermal conductivity of 0.058 W/mK occurred at an optimum density of 85 kg/m{sup 3}. The thermal conductivity of commonly used industrial insulators, namely loose-fill expanded vermiculite, cellular glass and blanket fiber glass, at a mean temperature of 38 C are 0.066 W/mK, 0.061 W/mK and 0.052 W/mK respectively. When compared, these results show that air dried coconut fiber has far reaching potential for use as an effective building thermal insulation.
- OSTI ID:
- 543457
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970582-; TRN: IM9748%%69
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 3. Insulation materials: testing and applications, Quebec City (Canada), 15-17 May 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997; Related Information: Is Part Of Insulation materials: Testing and applications. Third volume; Graves, R.S. [ed.] [R and D Services, Inc., Lenoir City, TN (United States)]; Zarr, R.R. [ed.] [National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (United States)]; PB: [550] p.; ASTM special technical publication 1320
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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