Bamboo panels to control moisture level of buildings
Abstract
The traditional use of bamboo throughout South East Asia is very diverse: fences, scaffolding, kitchen equipment, furniture, mats, blinds, toothpicks, paper pulp… Some applications use bamboo cane as such, however the current tendency is also towards an unstructured use of bamboo in the form of fibers or chips or even ashes. From strips, a wide variety of boards and plywood are made. Panels from bamboo fibers compressed in the presence of an organic resin are also in development for earthquake-resistant structures of the building market. But in most cases, the bamboo is used for its structural properties, of bamboo cane itself or of particles or fibers from bamboo. Some works only focus on moisture absorption but they mainly concern the bamboo charcoal. Works on thermal insulation bamboo fibers are still rarer. This study focuses on the development and characterization of particle boards which will have the specificity to participate both in thermal insulation and control of humidity inside the building. The advantage is to obtain materials with low environmental impact and to reduce energy consumption due to the reduction of the moisture content. First of all, the conditions for producing fiberboards are studied to obtain panels without glue or using environmentally friendly adhesives. These panels are then characterized according to the criteria required for panels used in buildings (bending, swelling). Finally, their ability to absorb and desorb moisture and their thermal conductivity are investigated.