Development, characterization and thermal performance of insulating nonwoven fabrics made from textile waste

This paper reports a study on potential applicability of nonwoven samples made from textiles waste in building industries. Four nonwoven fabrics based on acrylic and wool waste were made using the needle punching technique, and tested in terms of thermo-physical properties. Results show that all developed nonwovens have an excellent insulation performance, the thermal conductivity is in the range of 0.03476–0.04877 W/(m·K); these values are comparable with that of conventional insulation materials. The lowest value of the thermal conductivity is observed for the nonwoven made from washed wool Wr (0.03476 W/m.K). In order to evaluate the thermal performance of manufactured nonwoven, a reduced-scale thermally controlled cavity was used; each wall of the cavity is outfitted with one nonwoven. The comparison is based on the outside surface temperature walls. The fixed inside surface temperature was 36 ℃; however, the outside surface temperature was less than 19 ℃. This result is in accordance with the obtained thermal conductivity values and confirms that materials based on textile waste have competitive thermal properties and could be used in building insulation materials.