Publication detail

Evaluation of Bio and Natural-based Thermal Insulation Materials in Visegrad Countries

NAGY, B. STRUHALA, K. KOSIŃSKI, P. BOSÁK, L.

Original Title

Evaluation of Bio and Natural-based Thermal Insulation Materials in Visegrad Countries

Type

journal article in Scopus

Language

English

Original Abstract

Existing guides on refurbishing buildings to nZEB standards are mostly focusing on using conventional thermal insulation materials, such as polystyrene, polyurethane or mineral wool, although these popular thermal insulations have rather high embodied environmental impacts. Moreover, their waste is long-lasting and their recycling is currently uneconomical since these materials are commonly incinerated or landfilled at the end of their life-cycle. Besides that, using incompatible thermal insulations on the building envelope of existing buildings could change hygrothermal behaviour, which may contradict the aim of the refurbishment. Therefore, in our research, we focused on the performance evaluation of bio- and natural-based materials using technical value analysis methodology to determine which thermal insulations are worth using in energy-efficient refurbishment projects and which ones may perform even better than conventional materials among the available ones in the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). During the research, we created a criteria matrix according to the Combinex value analysis method including e.g. hygrothermal performance, fire class, cost, construction technology, ecological footprint and recyclability based properties of the selected materials. Then, we evaluated the properties using to obtain the scores for each material in the decision matrix. We then sent the criteria matrix to selected 20+ experts in the AEC industry from the Visegrad countries to be able to calculate weights for our decision matrix by using Guilford’s weighting. Since the evaluation included experts from four countries, the regional differences were also included in the scoring and evaluation. In conclusion, we show that the presented technical value analysis methodology could be a strong decision-making tool for selecting the suitable sustainable material for reducing the environmental impact of buildings and there are currently several bio- and natural-based alternative thermal insulation materials in the Visegrad countries that are generally more advantageous to use than conventional materials.

Keywords

Bio-based materials, thermal insulation, decision matrix, Combinex value analysis

Authors

NAGY, B.; STRUHALA, K.; KOSIŃSKI, P.; BOSÁK, L.

Released

9. 11. 2023

Publisher

American Institute of Physics Inc.

ISBN

0094-243X

Periodical

AIP conference proceedings

Year of study

2918

Number

1

State

United States of America

Pages count

8

URL

https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85178013942&origin=resultslist&sort=plf-f&src=s&st1=Struhala&st2=Karel&nlo=1&nlr=20&nls=count-f&sid=323d4e6741a5ba61df4478c6ef62e43e&sot=anl&sdt=aut&sl=36&s=AU-ID%28%22Struhala%2c+Karel%22+55597153500%29&relpos=0&citeCnt=0&searchTerm=

BibTex

@article{BUT183266,
  author="Balázs {Nagy} and Karel {Struhala} and Piotr {Kosiński} and Lukáš {Bosák}",
  title="Evaluation of Bio and Natural-based Thermal Insulation Materials in Visegrad Countries",
  journal="AIP conference proceedings",
  year="2023",
  volume="2918",
  number="1",
  pages="8",
  doi="10.1063/5.0170926",
  issn="0094-243X",
  url="https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85178013942&origin=resultslist&sort=plf-f&src=s&st1=Struhala&st2=Karel&nlo=1&nlr=20&nls=count-f&sid=323d4e6741a5ba61df4478c6ef62e43e&sot=anl&sdt=aut&sl=36&s=AU-ID%28%22Struhala%2c+Karel%22+55597153500%29&relpos=0&citeCnt=0&searchTerm="
}