Laboratory and In-Situ Measurements for Thermal and Acoustic Performance of Straw Bales

Stefano Cascone, Gianpiero Evola, Antonio Gagliano, Gaetano Sciuto and Chiara Baroetto Parisi
Additional contact information
Stefano Cascone: Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy
Gianpiero Evola: Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering, University of Catania, Viale Andrea Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy
Antonio Gagliano: Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering, University of Catania, Viale Andrea Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy
Gaetano Sciuto: Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy
Chiara Baroetto Parisi: Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 64, 95123 Catania, Italy

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 20, 1-19

Abstract: This paper investigates the performance of timber-framed walls insulated with straw bales, and compares them with similar walls containing expanded polystyrene (EPS) instead of straw bales. First, thermal conductivity, initial water content, and density of the straw bales were experimentally measured in a laboratory set-up, and the dependence of the thermal conductivity of the dry material on temperature was described. Then, the two insulation solutions were compared by looking at their steady and periodic thermal transmittance, decrement factor, phase shift, internal areal heat capacity and surface mass. Finally, the acoustic performance of both wall typologies was analyzed by means of in situ measurements in two-story buildings built in Southern Italy. The weighted apparent sound reduction index for the partition wall between two houses and the weighted standardized level difference for the façades were assessed based on ISO Standard 16283. The results indicate that the dry straw bales have an average thermal conductivity of k = 0.0573 W/(m·K), and their density is around 80 kg/m 3 . In addition, straw bale walls have good steady thermal performance, but they still lack sufficient thermal inertia, as witnessed by the low phase shift and the high periodic thermal transmittance. Finally, according to the on-site measurements, the results underline that the acoustic performance of the straw bale walls is far better than the walls adopting traditional EPS insulation. Overall, the straw bales investigated are a promising natural and sustainable solution for thermal and sound insulation of buildings.

Keywords: sustainable buildings; insulating materials; dynamic properties; thermal conductivity; expanded polystyrene (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/20/5592/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/20/5592/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:20:p:5592-:d:275198

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().