Sustainable new brick and insulation panel from mineralization of stranded driftwood residues

Innovative, environmentally sustainable by-products are gaining increasing attention for their possible application as high performance materials for building thermo-acoustic insulation and, in general, new envelope blocks’ typologies, without requiring any burning process as the clay requires. In this view, this research work aims at investigating the possible use of stranded driftwood residues as sustainable brick and insulation panels. The thermal-energy characteristics of such innovative by-products in -dynamic conditions, before and after mineralization process, made by means of cement based additives which are also supposed to improve the fire resistance and the durability of the examined materials, are therefore investigated. In particular, several volume concentrations of biomasses and different sizes of the wood chips (sliced by means of several grinds) were tested when mineralized in cement based medium. The analyses were carried out by means of a hot-disk machine measuring in lab the thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and thermal capacity of the composite non-homogeneous material. The main findings show how the driftwood residues can represent an interesting solution to develop new building composite materials for high sustainability constructions and local utilization of natural resources. Further research development will concern the structural and durability tests of the materials, trying to define the best performing mix design for large scale application purpose.