Design and testing of natural fibre structural insulated panels

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Canadian society faces an urgent need for improved building systems in light of climate change and environmental degradation. The applicant will investigate natural fibres as a modern construction material. "Natural fibres" are cellulosic fibres obtained from plant sources, including wood, straw, hemp, and flax.Natural fibres have a number of environmental benefits. First, natural fibres are a renewable resource. Canada, with its large land base, is capable of producing millions of tonnes of cellulosic fibres every year. Natural fibres used for insulation can replace glass-fibre batts or foam insulation produced  from non-renewable materials. Second, plants remove CO2 (the main green-house gas leading to climate change) from the environment and use it to produce cellulose. When plant material is incorporated in a building element, this captured CO2 remains locked up for at least the design life of the component.A burgeoning industry in Canada, the United States, and Europe is developing new structural components that incorporate natural fibres. One form uses waste straw bales stacked up and plastered on both sides to form load-bearing walls or cladding in a timber or steel frame. Currently, these systems are used in a limited number of buildings. Engineers are often reluctant to use these components because there is little validated information on how these systems behave structurally.The applicant will address these needs by conducting full-scale structural testing and modeling on natural fibre structural insulated panels. The applicant will investigate improved systems that address durability concerns (such as prefabricated straw bale panels), the application of natural fibres to structures such as barns, warehouses, and sheds, and then use of other natural fibres, such as hemp. The applicant will use sophisticated modeling techniques, such as finite element analysis, to understand how these systems respond to applied loads, and an innovative digital imaging technique, called Particle Image Velocimetry, that allow investigators to measure deformations at any point within a panel with high accuracy.