Bath ready to launch demonstration tests for its prototypes

The SB&WRC project is part of the Programme Interreg VA France (Channel) England and benefits from financial support from the ERDF.

The University of Bath is now ready to commence demonstration testing of three prototype insulation panels prepared by partners working together on the Interreg Channel SB&WRC project.

Three 1.0 m2 area panels,, have been prepared for testing in the University of Bath’s Large Environmental Chamber (LEC) located on the Building Research Park, near Wroughton, Wiltshire.

The LEC comprises two identical 30 m3 temperature and Relative Humidity controlled chambers; the demonstration panels will be placed between the two chambers allowing different environmental conditions, simulating internal and external conditions, to be established.

Each panel is 150 mm thick; one has been insulated with bio-composite insulation board developed by the University of LaSalle; another has been insulated using recycled duvet covers, and has been prepared by the University of Brighton; the third panel has been prepared by the University of Bath using prototype wheat straw bale insulation bales.

The panels have been carefully instrumented to measure temperature and moisture profiles, as well as establish their thermal transmittance. The tests, to be commenced in February and run for six weeks, will assess at full-scale and under controlled environmental conditions the thermal and hygric performance of each insulation material.

The data generated from these demonstration tests will provide basis for future development, upscaling and marketing of the materials for future commercialisation.

In other work at the University of Bath straw bale insulation prototype bales have also been produced for deployment in the University of Brighton’s Waste House, and will be installed in February 2019.

The process of straw bale insulation prototype development which has been documented and submitted as a conference paper to 3rd International Conference on Bio-Based Building Materials 2019 to be held in Belfast in June 2019.

The production method results in a stable prototype for handling. As well as the demonstration trials using the LEC, smaller-scale thermal conductivity tests, that will compare the differ orientations of the straw at the selected density, will be completed by the second week of February.