Hygrothermal behaviour of flax shives used as insulation material in an attic of a traditional house

• Main Authors: Brachelet Franck, Asli Mounir, Antczak Emmanuel, Brue Flore, Defer Didier, Lucas Alain
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2020-01-01
• Series: MATEC Web of Conferences
• Online Access: https://www.matec-conferences.org/articles/matecconf/pdf/2020/03/matecconf_icome2017-2018_01017.pdf

Western Europe area is one of the world regions where traditionally flax is grown. Whether in France or Belgium, flax is mainly used for the production of fabrics. When separating the different components of the plant, small woody elements called shives which represented about 50% of the production, are recovered. This work aims to study the behavior of flax shives used as insulation material in an attic of a French Flanders traditional house. Main scientific issues related to the study of heat and mass transfer is to determine the evolution of the thermal characteristics of the material and its durability. First, we propose a laboratory analysis of the hygrothermal behavior of shives by conventional thermal methods for characterizing thermal conductivity and volumetric heat (heat flux method), sorption curve is also determined. Then we focus on an experimental site which is an independent house where the old insulation of the attic in glass wool was replaced by flax shives. The hygrothermal behavior of this new insulation was monitored with humidity and temperature sensors for ten months. The thermal performances determined for a raw form of the shives in the laboratory are encouraging and hygrometric results show advantageous behavior whatever the season.