Selecting insulation materials in building: from material to product: Fid-Bau Portal

Selecting insulation materials in building: from material to product

Guillanvarch, Y. / Gauthier, T. / Salvo, L. / Brechet, Y. / Quenard, D.

Product selection in building industry and especially for insulation purposes is a good example of what can happen when a standard is present. In France, there has been an effort to create an association for the certification of insulated products (ACERMI). We present briefly the standardization which lead to the main characteristics of insulated products as presented in the ACERMI database. But the aim of this paper is to present a theoretical study in which we try to calculate product characteristics starting from material properties. This link between materials and products is absolutely not included in the actual ACERMI certification. The methodology presented here is suitable to any industrial domain where a standard is present and where we have to face product selection upon phenomenological characteristics rather than material selection upon properties or performance index. Five characteristics (corresponding to various requirements of insulating products) are determined from specific tests and stored as fields in a database: mechanical properties in compression (I), dimensional stablity (S), behavior in water (O), mechanical (tensile, bending) properties (L), and vapor permeability (E). The estimation of I and L characteristics from materials properties for insulation is possible for foams. Further work would be needed to better estimate E and to find equations to estimate S and O. It would be very interesting to start work on wool products, even if the mechanics of these architectures is not well understood. This study is purely theoretical, although a prototype software was developed. Therefore there is no link with the ACERMI certification.