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Low Energy Building Materials Suitable for Bhutanese Architecture - Wood Wool Slab

Wangchuk, Dekar LU (2022) MVKL01 20221
Department of Energy Sciences
Abstract
Rammed earth is commonly used to construct traditional Bhutanese buildings. In colder areas,
the thermal performance of these buildings is poor leading to the easy ingress of cold air
demanding more heating energy to make a comfortable indoor climate. Modern insulation
materials are not common in Bhutan due to the lack of knowledge on the advantage of thermal
insulating materials, the unavailability of local insulating materials, and the cost associated with
them. The construction in urban areas is dominated by modern building materials such as
concrete and bricks nevertheless rural areas prefer the use of local materials. To improve the
indoor environment, new bio-based building insulating material called wood wool slab was ... (More)
Rammed earth is commonly used to construct traditional Bhutanese buildings. In colder areas,
the thermal performance of these buildings is poor leading to the easy ingress of cold air
demanding more heating energy to make a comfortable indoor climate. Modern insulation
materials are not common in Bhutan due to the lack of knowledge on the advantage of thermal
insulating materials, the unavailability of local insulating materials, and the cost associated with
them. The construction in urban areas is dominated by modern building materials such as
concrete and bricks nevertheless rural areas prefer the use of local materials. To improve the
indoor environment, new bio-based building insulating material called wood wool slab was
introduced. As a pilot project, the Bhutanese blue pine was used as the main raw material to
manufacture wood wool, and cement was used as a binder to prepare wood wool slabs in two
different methods. Three different specimen was made and tested in civil engineering
laboratory for the bending strength test, among which specimen 3 stands the highest bending
force 584 N at a displacement of approximately 11 mm whereas specimen 1 and specimen 2
resist a force of nearly 300 N. Thermal conductivity test was also performed in physics
laboratory by Hot Disk (TPS 2500S), however, the test was unsuccessful due to uneven surface
of the specimen that provides defective results. In the performed simulations, the value from
the Swedish wood wool slab results was used to compare the thermal performance and energy
performance in unheated cases, 2 kW cases, and 10 kW cases.
The comparison was made with rammed earth and burnt bricks. The highest energy
consumption in a year was 24123 kWh in rammed earth buildings, followed by burnt bricks
with 17922 kWh and the lowest was 6576 kWh for wood wool slab buildings. Accordingly, the
thermal performance of these three building materials was compared in an unheated case. The
wood wool slab has shown better performance which means that it can retain heat for a longer
duration. This result indicates that the wood wool slab can be a good alternative for the
Bhutanese construction industry to make buildings thermally comfortable and energy-efficient. (Less)
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author
Wangchuk, Dekar LU
supervisor
organization
course
MVKL01 20221
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
report number
LUTMDN/TMHP-22/5495-SE
ISSN
0282-1990
language
English
id
9093628
date added to LUP
2022-06-27 14:57:59
date last changed
2022-06-27 14:57:59
@misc{9093628,
  abstract     = {{Rammed earth is commonly used to construct traditional Bhutanese buildings. In colder areas, 
the thermal performance of these buildings is poor leading to the easy ingress of cold air 
demanding more heating energy to make a comfortable indoor climate. Modern insulation 
materials are not common in Bhutan due to the lack of knowledge on the advantage of thermal 
insulating materials, the unavailability of local insulating materials, and the cost associated with 
them. The construction in urban areas is dominated by modern building materials such as 
concrete and bricks nevertheless rural areas prefer the use of local materials. To improve the 
indoor environment, new bio-based building insulating material called wood wool slab was 
introduced. As a pilot project, the Bhutanese blue pine was used as the main raw material to 
manufacture wood wool, and cement was used as a binder to prepare wood wool slabs in two 
different methods. Three different specimen was made and tested in civil engineering 
laboratory for the bending strength test, among which specimen 3 stands the highest bending 
force 584 N at a displacement of approximately 11 mm whereas specimen 1 and specimen 2 
resist a force of nearly 300 N. Thermal conductivity test was also performed in physics 
laboratory by Hot Disk (TPS 2500S), however, the test was unsuccessful due to uneven surface 
of the specimen that provides defective results. In the performed simulations, the value from 
the Swedish wood wool slab results was used to compare the thermal performance and energy 
performance in unheated cases, 2 kW cases, and 10 kW cases. 
The comparison was made with rammed earth and burnt bricks. The highest energy 
consumption in a year was 24123 kWh in rammed earth buildings, followed by burnt bricks 
with 17922 kWh and the lowest was 6576 kWh for wood wool slab buildings. Accordingly, the 
thermal performance of these three building materials was compared in an unheated case. The 
wood wool slab has shown better performance which means that it can retain heat for a longer 
duration. This result indicates that the wood wool slab can be a good alternative for the 
Bhutanese construction industry to make buildings thermally comfortable and energy-efficient.}},
  author       = {{Wangchuk, Dekar}},
  issn         = {{0282-1990}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Low Energy Building Materials Suitable for Bhutanese Architecture - Wood Wool Slab}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}