Review on properties of some thermal insulating materials providing more comfort in the building

Abstract

The energy demand for buildings is rapidly increasing due to climate change and meeting sustainability due to environmental pollution are major challenges in the 21st century. The role of thermal insulation materials in the building envelope is significant. However, conventional building envelopes record a high amount of energy consumption to meet the demand for heating and cooling. There have been many researchers conducted on eco-friendly thermal insulation materials for building nevertheless very few attempts have been made a report on life cycle cost criteria but no attempt has been made concise the benefits of several thermal insulation materials to curtail heat ingress and more exclusively on thermal properties, CO2 emission, embodied energy, and safety of thermal insulating materials. In this context, this paper reviews the prior development and current findings of various thermal insulation materials to curtail heat ingress and contribution to sustainability. Thermal insulation materials include Cork, Fibreglass, Mineral wool, Cellulose, Polyurethane, Polystyrene, Rice husk, crumb rubber, sheep wool, date palm, Perlite, Phase change materials, Aerogels, Vacuum Insulation materials and Nano materials incorporated insulation materials are discussed. Among composition of organics materials, cork, fibreglass, cellulose with additives, polystyrene are potential thermal insulation materials by reducing thermal conductivity up to 30 which could curtail the heat ingress whereas inorganic compositions Vacuum insulation panels (VIP), aerogels and Nano silica (up to 3%) are the most promising insulating materials consisting of inorganic composition with low thermal conductivity. Finally, the paper also describes the limitation that fiberglass aerogel had achieved poor strength and VIPs are high cost. Finally, this comprehensive review may help researchers to acquire knowledge on all available thermal insulation materials and selection of suitable current thermal insulating materials based on the framework proposed in the paper.