Sugarcane bagasse waste fibers as novel thermal insulation and sound-absorbing materials for application in sustainable buildings

Global warming and noise pollution have emerged as the most serious environmental problems ever to confront humanity. In recent years, the use of natural fibers as thermal insulation and sound absorption construction materials has received much attention. Sugarcane bagasse waste (SBW) is an agro-industrial by-product, abundantly produced in sugar processing plants. Endowed with intrinsic surface roughness, SBW fibers are expected to exhibit high thermal and acoustic performance. To this end, SBW as an eco-friendly material was used to fabricate fibrous samples of different densities and thicknesses. The thermal insulation and sound absorption performance of the specimens were investigated using the guarded hot plate and impedance tube techniques, respectively. Additionally, the surface morphology and tensile properties of the SBW fibers were investigated using the FE-SEM and universal tensile tester. The thermal conductivity values of the specimens were found to range between 0.034 and 0.042 W/mK. The sound absorption average (SAA) and noise reduction coefficient (NRC) of the prepared samples were between 0.26-0.64 and 0.27-0.62, respectively. The results pointed to the good performance of the SBW fibers in the low- and mid-frequency ranges. The acoustic characteristics of the specimens were also studied by the Johnson-Champoux-Allard and statistical models and good agreement with experimental data was noticed. It was concluded that SBW as an innovative sustainable construction material provides competitive performance in terms of thermal and acoustical characteristics compared with its natural and nonrenewable counterparts.