POSSIBILITY OF USING COMPRESSED RICE STRAW AS AN INSULATION MATERIAL

The present work introduces composite manufactured from grounded rice straw via addition urea-formaldehyde UF resin as a binding material. The different percentages of commercial urea-formaldehyde resin were used by weight as binder in manufacturing of the composite. The expansion percentage E (%), bulk density Bd (kg/m^3) and thermal conductivity k (W/m.°C) of the manufactured composite affected by different content of binding material Bm UF resin (0, 20, 30, 40 and 50%), different formation pressure FP of (5.7, 12.4 and 18.5 MPa) and elapsed time (days) after releasing formation pressure. The results showed that expansion percentage E (%) increased with increasing of formation pressure FP and elapsed time (days) at different binding material Bm (%). The bulk density Bd (kg/m^3) was higher at binding material percentages Bm of 50 % under formation pressures of 18.5 MPa, after 0, 7 and 14 days. The bulk density “Bd” (kg/m^3) was lower at binding material percentages Bm of 0 % (control) under formation pressures of 5.7 MPa, after 0, 7 and 14 days. The thermal conductivity k(W/m.°C) decreased with increasing formation pressure FP and binding material percentage.