Abstract
Western Europe area is one of the world regions where traditionally flax is grown. Whether in France or Belgium, flax is mainly used for the production of fabrics. When separating the different components of the plant, small woody elements called shives which represented about 50% of the production, are recovered. This work aims to study the behavior of flax shives used as insulation material in an attic of a French Flanders traditional house. Main scientific issues related to the study of heat and mass transfer is to determine the evolution of the thermal characteristics of the material and its durability. First, we propose a laboratory analysis of the hygrothermal behavior of shives by conventional thermal methods for characterizing thermal conductivity and volumetric heat (heat flux method), sorption curve is also determined. Then we focus on an experimental site which is an independent house where the old insulation of the attic in glass wool was replaced by flax shives. The hygrothermal behavior of this new insulation was monitored with humidity and temperature sensors for ten months. The thermal performances determined for a raw form of the shives in the laboratory are encouraging and hygrometric results show advantageous behavior whatever the season.
Highlights
Production areas of flax cultivating essentially concern the Western part of Europe because flax does not like heat and deficiency of water
The first part of this work is devoted to the thermal characterization of shives in laboratory conditions and the second concerns the monitoring of the hygrothermal behavior of the flax shives used as insulation material in the attic of a traditional house
The thermal resistances obtained vary from 4 m2.K.W-1 to 5.25 m2.K.W-1 which corresponds to a thickness of mineral wool of 20 cm, perfectly laid
Summary
Production areas of flax cultivating essentially concern the Western part of Europe because flax does not like heat and deficiency of water. In the same way as the straw in the eco-construction, project partners wish to valorize flax shives as a bio-based insulation material. The principle is to valorize local natural resources and to use them within the framework of short circuits of distribution [4]. In this project, we want to use the product close to its raw form, the least processed as possible in order to reduce energy consumption. The densities obtained are quite high compared to those found for traditional insulation. It ranges between 126 kg/m3 and 154 kg/m3, with an average value of 140 kg/m3. Compared to existing products for this type of insulation, bulk mineral wools have a density between 20 kg/m3 and 80 kg/m3, the cellulose wadding is blown to a density of 50 kg/m3
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