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.