Abstract
Buildings consume a large amount of energy during all stages of their life cycle. One of the most efficient ways to reduce their consumption is to use thermal insulation materials; however, these generally have negative effects on the environment and human health. Bio-insulations are presented as a good alternative solution to this problem, thus motivating the study of the properties of natural or recycled materials that could reduce energy consumption in buildings. Fique is a very important crop in Colombia. In order to contribute to our knowledge of the properties of its fibers as a thermal insulator, the measurement of its thermal conductivity is reported herein, employing equipment designed according to the ASTM C 177 standard and a kinetic study of its thermal decomposition from thermogravimetric data through the Coats–Redfern model-fitting method.
Highlights
Global warming has become one of the greatest challenges facing humans in modern times, causing serious problems such as heat waves, drinking water shortages, and the spread of disease [1]
This paper reports the measurement of its thermal conductivity, by means of the guarded hot plate method (ASTM C 177), and a study of its thermal decomposition by means of the analysis of thermogravimetric data using the Coats–Redfern method
Where k is the thermal conductivity of the material, Q is the heat transfer rate, L is the thickness of the sample, A is the heat transfer area, and ∆T is the temperature difference
Summary
Global warming has become one of the greatest challenges facing humans in modern times, causing serious problems such as heat waves, drinking water shortages, and the spread of disease [1] This phenomenon is mostly caused by the increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to the use of fossil fuels to satisfy the growing demand for energy, which is, in turn, driven by population growth, the increase in the number of vehicles, and the development of new information technologies, among other reasons. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in each of the last three decades, the Earth’s surface has been successively warmer than any previous decade since 1850 [2] To alleviate this problem, it is necessary to develop new energy sources and to find ways to reduce society’s energy consumption. There has been a great deal of interest in improving their energy efficiency around the world, which can be seen in the increase in research on the subject [7] and in the emergence of regulations [8,9]
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