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5 Congres International de Thermique-AMT2018

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1,2*
Mustapha BOUMHAOUT EFFECT OF MOISTURE CONTENT ON THE
1,3
Lahcen BOUKHATTEM
Hassan HAMDI
1,2 THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF
1,2
Brahim BENHAMOU
1
A BINDERLESS BOARD MADE FROM DATE
Fatima AIT NOUH
1
PALM FIBERS MESH
EnR2E, National Center of Studies
and Research on Water and
Energy, CNEREE, Cadi Ayyad
University, Marrakesh, Morocco
2
Energy Process Research Group, Abstract: The boards made from date palm fibers mesh as construction
LMFE, CNRST Associated material bear a growing interest owing to their several advantages such as
Research Unit (URAC 27), Faculty their insulation effects. An experimental study was carried out on the
of Science Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad humidity effect on thermal conductivity of binderless board of Date Palm
University, Marrakesh, Morocco Fibers (BB-DPF) mesh. The obtained results show that the thermal
3
LMPEQ, National School of conductivity of BB-DPF increases significantly with volumetric water content.
Applied Sciences, Safi, Cady Indeed, at saturation state it may reach 4 times its value at dry state.
Ayyad University, Marrakesh,
Morocco Keywords: Binderless board, Date palm fibers mesh, water content,
*Mustapha.boumhaout@edu.uca. thermal conductivity.
ac.ma

1. Introduction conductivity of fibers and their composite

The main insulation materials existing in the
Moroccan market are: cork, rock wool, glass
wool, polyurethane, expanded polystyrene,
extruded polystyrene and perlite [1]. These
materials are expensive as most of them have
to be imported. On the other hand, these
materials are often noxious and have a
negative impact on human health as well as on
the environment [2]. Vegetal fibers used in
construction materials bears a growing interest
owing to their several advantages such as
availability, low cost, biodegradability,
renewability, abundance, absence of toxicity
and polluting effects.
The vegetal materials used alone have
drawn attention of many researchers in last
decades. Ngohe-Ekam et al. [3] have carried
out an experimental study on the influence of
density on the thermophysical properties of
tropical woods. Agoudjil et al. [4] have
investigated the thermophysical, the chemical
and the dielectric properties of three varieties of
date palm wood. They noticed that date palm
wood could be a good candidate for the
development of efficient and safe insulating
materials when compared to other natural
materials. Xu et al. [5], Zhou et al. [6,7] and
Panyakaew et al. [8] have studied the thermal
conductivity and bulk density of natural
insulation boards made from kenaf, straw,
cotton stalk, bagasse and coconut husk. They
reported that the thermal conductivity of the
studied materials increases with their bulk
density.
On the other hand, vegetable fibers are
known to be very hydrophilic and this may
impact negatively their insulating capacity.
Therefore, a deeper investigation on thermal
Safi (Maroc) 18-19 Avril 2018
materials as function of moisture content is
required. Korjenic et al. [9] carried out an
investigation on impact of moisture on thermal
conductivity of boards made from natural fibers
(jute, flax and hemp) and concluded that
moisture has higher influence on boards made
from higher hydrophilic fibers. Water absorption
of date palm fibers, rachis and petiole type,
were experimentally investigated by
Benmansour et al. [10].
DPF mesh may be used advantageously in
form of insulating binderless boards (DPF-B) to
low its thermal conductivity. However, the
hydrophilic character of DPF meshes may
impact negatively their positive effects as
insulating materials used in forms of binderless
boards (DPF-B). This paper aims at studying
experimentally humidity effect on thermal
conductivity of binderless board of Date Palm
Fibers.
2. Experimental set up
2.1 DPF mesh binderless boards
manufacturing
The following procedure was used for
preparation of the DPF mesh binderless
boards. Date palm fibers mesh (DPF), were
obtained from First Unity of Date Palm
Production of Marrakesh. Prior to their use, they
were washed with high pressure water in order
to eliminate the pollutant particles. The fibers
are then dried: firstly being sun dried for two
days and then further oven dried at 70◦C until
reaching constant weight. Afterwards, the fibers
with diameters 0-0.7 mm were cut to lengths
ranging from 50 to 60 mm. The DPF mesh
based boards were manually manufactured,
without the use of chemical binding additives.

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The transparent Plexiglas mould of volume 26.5
3
×26.5×4cm , shown in Fig. 1, was filled with
DPF meshes and let at ambient temperature of
26°C and ambient humidity of around 30%
under a constant compacting mass load of
6.000 ± 0.002 kg for about 24h. When the
volume of fibers reduced, another quantity of
fibers and compacting mass load were added.
This operation was repeated until the volume of
fibers remained unchanged in the filled
Plexiglas mould under a maximum compacting
mass load of 60.000 ± 0.002 kg.
Figure 1: DPF board preparation.
2.2 Thermal conductivity measurement of
DPF mesh as function of water content
The thermal conductivity measurements
were made by using the EI700 device which is
based on two boxes method. The description of
this device and thermal conductivity
measurement principle were reported in
Boumhaout et al. [11].
For the measurement of the thermal
conductivities of DPF board measurements
were firstly done on samples at saturated state.
Then, the water content of samples was
gradually reduced by drying. Their thermal
conductivities and water content were
measured after each drying step.
The first four drying steps were made at air
ambient and the other ones performed by using
an oven with temperature set at 70°C. After
each drying step, the thermal conductivity of the
sample was measured, then its water content
determined following the procedure described
here after.
For each step, the sample was weighed
using an electronic balance with 2g accuracy to
determine its wet mass mwet. The saturated and
dry mass states are referred as m sat and mdry.
The mass water content ( is
calculated using the following equation.
(1)
The volumetric water content ( ) is
defined as:
Safi (Maroc) 18-19 Avril 2018
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5 Congres International de Thermique-AMT2018
(2)
Where and are respectively the
volume of water absorbed and the bulk volume
of the sample. Neglecting the swilling
phenomenon due to water absorption, Wv may
be expressed as function of Wm by:
(3)
Where and are the bulk density of
BB-DPF at dry state and water density ( =
–3
1000 kg.m at 20 °C), respectively.
3. Experimental results
This section concerns the experimental
investigation on determination of maximal water
absorption rate and moisture content effect on
thermal conductivity of BB-DPF. Experimental
results are presented with the uncertainties
calculated according to NF ENV 13005 [12].
3.1 DPF Board
The maximum water absorption rate of BB-
DPF, , is their maximum mass water
content reached at saturation state. It is
therefore expressed as the ratio of mass water
uptake ( ) to dry mass:
(4)
The Maximum water absorption rate was
determined at its saturated state realized
following the procedure described in section
II.1. The measured value of Abmax for DPF
board was 293 ± 1%.
3.2 Thermal conductivity as function of
water content
The procedure used to carry out
measurements of thermal conductivity of DPF-B
as function of water content was described in
section II.3. The thermal conductivity of BB-
DPF evolution as function of volumetric water
content is presented in Fig. 2.
The value of BB-DPF thermal conductivity
-
measured at dry state is k = 0.033 ± 0.002 W.m
1 -1
.K . This value comes from the contribution of
both air and pure fiber solid material. Indeed, at
dry state, the BB-DPF may be viewed as
composed by only two phases (solid and air).
Air is trapped in the total pores available in the
BB-DPF matrix. It is considered as a good
-1 -1
insulator (k = 0.026 W.m .K ) and contributes
positively to lower the thermal conductivity of
the matrix as the solid phase constituted by the
pure fiber material has a slightly greater thermal
-1 -1
conductivity k = 0.13 W.m .K , determined by
Djoudi et al. [13].
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5 Congres International de Thermique-AMT2018
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A comparison between the BB-DPF thermal The wet DPF-B may be viewed as
conductivity, at dry state, with other insulation composed by three phases (solid, water and
materials is presented in Table 1. It can be air). Air remains trapped in the closed pores
seen that the thermal conductivity value of BB- while it is gradually replaced, as the water
DPF is in the same range as those of two content increases, by the water in the board
synthetic materials (Rockwool and extruded open pores. At the saturated state, water
polystyrene foam) and is lower than those of occupies the open pores corresponding to
natural insulation boards (bagasse, husk, kenaf, residual saturation Rs. The increase of the
jute, flax, technical hemp cotton stalk and thermal conductivity in the wet BB-DPF is due
straw) and those of some synthetic materials to the fact that the thermal conductivity of water
-1 -1
(Polyethylene foam, Fiberglass and Cellulose (0.6 W.m .K ) is higher than the one of air
-1 -1
fibers). (0.026 W.m .K ).
At the saturated state, thermal conductivity
-1 -1
of the sample is k = 0.147 W.m .K , which
represents about four times its value at dry
state. However, this value remains within the
limits of insulation materials [17] and therefore
the DPF-B can be used as insulating material in
high humid environments. The BB-DPF material
could be suitable for interior walls and may
replace advantageously artificial materials as it
presents a good structure, compatibly and may
adhere very well thanks to the roughness
structure of the fibers. The relationship between
Figure 2: Variation of thermal conductivity of the thermal conductivity, k, and the volumetric
board made from DPF mesh as function of water content, Wv, of the DPF-B may be
volumetric water content. expressed as a polynomial fit. The best fit
obtained from Fig. 2 is,
Fig. 2 shows that thermal conductivity, k, of wet
BB-DPF increases with volumetric water (5)
content, W v, from its minimal value at dry state 2
-1 -1
(k = 0.033 ± 0.002 W.m .K ) to its maximal With a correlation coefficient R =0.997.
value at saturated state (k = 0.147 ± 0.004 4. Conclusion
-1 -1
W.m .K ). The values of thermal conductivity
of wet DPF-B come from the contribution of An experimental study was carried out on
pure fiber solid material, water and air. humidity effect on thermal conductivity of
binderless board of Date Palm Fibers (BB-DPF)
Table 1: Comparison between the BB-DPF
mesh. The obtained results show that BB-DPF
thermal conductivity, measured at dry state, with the
ones of insulation materials presented in the
is hydrophilic as their measured maximum
literature. water absorption rate is 293 ± 1 % representing
Bulk Thermal three times their dry weight. The thermal
Materials density conductivity Ref. conductivity of binderless board increases with
(kg/m3) (W.m-1.K-1) their volumetric water content. This thermal
This conductivity at saturation state may reach 4
BB-DPF 121 ± 3 0.033 ± 0.002
work
Cotton stalk insulation board 150–450 0.058–0.081 [7] times its value at dry state. However, even
Kenaf insulation board 150–200 0.051–0.058 [5] when wetted, BB-DPF thermal conductivity
Binderless coconut husk values are still acceptable as insulating
250–350 0.046–0.068 [8]
insulation board materials to be used in humid environments.
Binderless bagasse The lowers its water retention capacity which is
250–350 0.049–0.055 [8]
insulation board
Jute
26 0.046 [9] a positive effect when considering that trapped
32 0.043 [9] water increases the thermal conductivity of the
Flax
82 0.039 [9]
Technical hemp insulating materials.
Polyethylene foam (PE) 50–100 0.035–0.045 [14]
Extruded polystylene foam
Acknowledgment
24–42 0.026–0.035 [15]
(XPS) This study is a part of the RafriBAT project
Expanded perlite boards 78–224 0.048–0.062 [15]
financially supported by a grant from the
Cellulose fibres 30–80 0.040–0.045 [14]
Hassan II Royal Academy of Sciences and
Rockwool 80–200 0.025–0.035 [15]
Techniques, Morocco.
Low-density wheat straw
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