Industrial Crops and Products 34 (2011) 921–928

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Industrial Crops and Products

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop

Development of thermal insulating and sound absorbing agro-sourced materials

from auto linked flax-tows
Nemr El Hajj a,∗ , Brice Mboumba-Mamboundou a , Rose-Marie Dheilly a , Zoheir Aboura b ,
Malek Benzeggagh b , Michèle Queneudec a
a
Equipe Ingénierie des Matériaux et Procédés (IMAP), Laboratoire des Technologies Innovantes EA 3899, Université de Picardie Jules Verne,
5-7 rue du Moulin Neuf 80 000, Amiens, France
b
Université de technologie de Compiègne, laboratoire Roberval UMR/CNRS 6253, Centre de recherche Royallieu BP 20 259, F-60205 Compiègne, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The aim of this paper is to develop a green composite using only flax fiber material for thermal insulations
Received 4 January 2011 and sound absorbing using flax-tows and thus enhance the less noble part of the flax plant. The Lin-K
Received in revised form 16 February 2011 process is a simple patented manufacturing process used to develop these self-linked materials. Thermal
Accepted 17 February 2011
conductivity, absorbing acoustic coefficient, hydric properties and the effect of several parameters on
Available online 24 March 2011
these performances are reviewed. The use of fine flax-tows leads to extract more organic substances
of the inner fibers during the microwave treatment which improves the mechanical performances and
Keywords:
reduces the thermal conductivities of these materials. The environment has very significant effects on
Biodegradable material
Flax-tow
thermal stability and durability of these materials.
Manufacturing process © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Thermal properties
Mechanical properties
Sound absorption coefficient

1. Introduction Insulating materials used in construction are either solid materi-

Environmental concerns have resulted in a renewed interest in
sustainable composites focusing on bio-based fibers. The research
efforts are being harnessed in the development of fully biodegrad-
able “green” composites. The major attractions regarding the green
composites are their environmental-friendly, fully degradable and
sustainable nature (Dobircau et al., 2009).
In flax, long high-quality textile fibers are considered as the
noble fraction and the rest (∼80% of the plant mass) are low-
cost-by-products. The short fibers (∼15%), also called “flax-tow”,
containing a large proportion of flax-shaves, are nevertheless
potential lignocellulosic raw materials, perfectly corresponding
to actual demand on renewable, recyclable and biodegradable
resources. In addition, these “green fibers” give less concern with
health and safety during handling of fiber products (Stamboulis
et al., 2001). However, the non-homogeneity of vegetable fibers,
their properties influenced by many factors, including plant type,
variety and growth conditions, are a commonly perceived problem
(Yu et al., 2009).
The aim at longer range is to propose agrosourced sandwich
materials that present thermal insulation and sound absorption
performances as well as mechanical resistance.
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 0 3 44 23 44 23×4216.
E-mail address: nemr.el-hajj@utc.fr (N.E. Hajj).
als to be used unchanged (cellular concretes, lightweight aggregate
concretes), either doubling materials (mineral, animal or plant
wool) to be incorporated in multilayer walls.
The sound insulation is to limit the transmission of sound
on either side of a material. This insulation is usually achieved
using dense materials because their inertia makes harder their
motion with sound waves. Therefore, they generate fewer waves
transmitted by vibrations. Lightweight porous materials, including
insulation wools, do not work by this mass effect but by absorption.
These materials absorb sound by viscous dissipation, implying that
the waves can penetrate into the material and have enough space
to be amortized. Sound insulation reinforcement is materialized by
applying either the mass law principle: more the wall mass is heavy,
the insulation is better, either the principle mass-spring-mass law:
two walls (heavy) are separated by a spring (cavity filled with a
flexible insulator) which absorbs and disperses sound energy. The
acoustic insulation performance strongly depends of the density
of these masses and effectiveness of this spring. This principle will
be applied in the design of the agrosourced wall sandwich that is
developed to allow thermal insulation as well.
The concerned vegetable doubling materials include particu-
larly flax, wood and hemp wools are well described in literature
(Collet et al., 2011; ISOVER, in press; Klamer et al., 2004; Kozlowski
et al., 2011; Satyanarayana et al., 2009; STRAMIT, 2006). How-
ever, these materials are generally obtained by thermal bonding

0926-6690/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2011.02.012
922 N.E. Hajj et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 34 (2011) 921–928
using fossil resins of polypropylene or polyester type. (Dubois and
Von-Robaeys, 1995) have found a process for manufacturing a non-
woven fabric made from flax by needling using as bonding agent
the cements natural linen. (Thomas et al., 2002) have developed a
process to stiffen a web of natural fibers into a cohesive sheet using
pectin and compression.
The Materials and Processes Engineering team of the Innova-
tive Technology Laboratory (EA 3899) has developed a process
that allows elaborating fibrous insulating material without adding
thermobonding resins through a microwave wet phase technology
(Quéneudec et al., 2005). The main disadvantage of these mate-
rials is nevertheless, their high hydrophilic character, as it is the
case for almost all composites based on vegetal lignocellulosic raw
materials. The moisture absorption by these self-linked composites
containing lignocellulosic byproduct has several adverse effects on
their properties and thus affects their long-term performances.
This paper aims to evaluate the thermal, hydrous and acous-
tic performances of this rigid self-supporting material in order to
assess the feasibility of use in association with a material hav-
ing good mechanical properties and good fire resistance in an
agrosourced multilayer wall technically competitive. This work is
limited to cases of flax co-products especially flax tow.
2. Testing methods
2.1. Moisture adsorption
This test is inspired from the standard NF EN 12571 for porous
materials used in construction.
Composite materials were dried at 50 ◦ C until constant weight
to remove any moisture prior to conditioning in a humidity cham-
ber at 25 ◦ C and different relative humidities. The specimens are
removed at regular intervals for weight measurement. The effect
of this removal on weight gain determination is unsignificant. The
percentage weight gain was measured thanks to an analytical bal-
ance with a resolution of 0.001 g. The conditioning process was
continued until full saturation of the materials was achieved.
2.2. Water absorption
Flax-tows were dried at 50 ◦ C until constant weight for 7 days
before water absorption experiments. The water absorption capac-
ity and the saturation time were measured until stabilization of
a known mass (mean 60–65 g) of flax tows immersed in distilled
water. In practice, a given mass of flax-tows was placed in a sieve,
which had been weighed beforehand, immersed in a tank contain-
ing a known volume of water. The sieve and its contents were then
regularly weighed (once every 30 s) until achieving constant mass.
The gain in mass is calculated using the following formula:
 (M 
− M0 )
Sat
WAbs % = ∗ 100
M0
M0 : the mass of the dry sample before immersion in water. MSat :
the mass of the sample at saturation. WAbs : the saturation rate.
2.3. Scanning electronic microscopy
The microstructural morphology of flax tows and various sam-
ples was studied by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
This analysis enabled evaluating the treatment effects on fibers and
fibers adhesion. The micrographs were performed using a Philips
FEG XL 30 microscope. To facilitate observation, tows and samples
were initially dried and then covered with a thin layer of spray-on
gold, which acted like a conductor.
Fig. 1. Impedance tube setup for agromaterials testing measurements.
2.4. Sound absorption coefficient
The sound absorption coefficient is measured in impedance tube
using two-microphone transfer-function method according to ISO
10534-2 and ASTM E1050-98 international standards.
The experimental apparatus (Fig. 1) include: B&Kpulse v10
software, B&K3560 analyser, B&K4260 impedance tube, 1/4 in.
B&K4187 condenser microphones cartridge with B&K2670 pream-
plifier, and B&K2716 power amplifier. The experimental frequency
ranges between 50 and 6400 Hz, and the span is 2 Hz.
We used two types of samples: tube of diameter 100 mm for high
frequencies and 28 mm for low frequencies. Specimen’s thickness
is 5 cm.
2.5. Thermal conductivity
For thermal conductivity measurement, two cubic samples
of 100 × 100 × 100 mm3 were prepared for each type of agro-
composites. Then, all the specimens were dried in a drying oven
at 50 ± 2 ◦ C and weighed at 24 h intervals until the loss in weight
did not exceed 1% in a 24 h. Then the surfaces of all the samples
were polished to achieve smooth surfaces in order to maintain the
proper contact between the TPS sensor and the specimen. It should
be noted that the size of the sample must satisfy the condition of
an infinite medium, that is the “probing depth”, which indicates
how far the heating pulse has propagated into the sample during
the transient time, is less than the distance from the heater to the
nearest boundary of the sample (Gustafsson, 1991).
The TPS technique has proven to be a precise and convenient
method for measuring the thermal transport properties of electri-
cally insulating materials. Thermal conductivity measurement of
the samples, at dry state, have been made at room temperature
and normal pressure using transient plane source (TPS) method,
which is the subject of considerable research (Mangal et al., 2003).
(1) The experimental set-up is shown in Fig. 2.
The technique is based on three-dimensional heat flow inside
the sample, which can be regarded as an infinite medium by limit-
ing the total time of transient recording. A disk-shaped TPS-element
was placed between two cubic samples. In order to ensure a good
thermal contact between the TPS sensor and the sample material,
a chucking device was used.
In the TPS technique, the source of heat is a hot disc made out
of a bifilar spiral, which also serves as a sensor of the temperature
increase in the samples.
2.6. Flexural and compressive testing
Five specimens were prepared for each kind of studied agro-
composite. The samples were dried at 50 ◦ C until constant weight
 N.E. Hajj et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 34 (2011) 921–928 923

Fig. 2. Experimental TPS-set up.

textile industry in general. The crude flax tow used is not cleaned
up and contains a shave rate of 50% by mass.
The presence of shives among fibers in crude flax-tow is con-
firmed by scanning electron microscopy analysis (Fig. 4). Those
have a honeycomb structure and their diameter is more important
h

than those of fibers. This structure will influence the thermal prop-
hfin

erties of the final composite and allow good thermal performance.

The flax tows elementary fibers have a polygonal section. The diam-
hmin

eter of flax tows elementary fibers generally varies between 15

and 25 ␮m (Fig. 5). They are often gathered in fascicles (Fig. 4).
These fibers have a structure similar to that of composites materials
with the matrix of hemicellulose and for reinforcement of cellu-
Fig. 3. Illustration of the deformation of a self-linked composite sample.
lose fibrils (Baley, 2004). The surface of fibers is smoother than that
of shives. Some present folds, they are due to flax stripping. The
for three point flexural tests and compressive tests. Flexural and density of an elementary fiber of flax-tow is  = 82 ± 7 kg/m3 .
compressive strengths were determined thanks to a hydraulic The basic unit of the flax fiber microstructure is composed of
machine (according, EN 196-1 standards). cellulose polymer chains aligned and interconnected by microfib-
The choice of compressive load limit was decided thanks to rils. They are linked together by lignin, the hemicelluloses and
earlier work, corresponding to preliminary tests for making 100% pectins. The amount of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, polysaccha-
vegetable self-linked materials using flax tows. It was demon- rids (pectin) and others are cited in Table 1 (Lucas et al., 2007).
strated the ability of such materials to deform under compressive The vegetable nature and the structure of these fibers raise
load and come back completely or partially to their initial shapes the question of their behavior opposite to the water. The water
when the load is off (Fig. 3). The compression tests could not be done absorption of these fibers is important because it is involved in the
following an established standard test. The limit of compactibility manufacturing process.
of such materials is reached at a rate of deformation around 80–90%,
with loads greater than or equal to 100 kN. It means, there is no
deformation after applying a load greater than or equal to 100 kN.
Therefore, to make a future comparison between different types of
this material, it was necessary that the load stays below 100 kN.
Recall that h is the height of the initial sample; hmin is the height
corresponding to the maximum recorded deflection and hfin is the
final height after cessation of the stress load required to compress
the composite until hmin . The test is performed at constant load.
We defined hfin /h as the relaxation rate when the deformation is
done on a dry material. We will talk about compaction rate, when
the deformation is done on a wet mat.

3. Materials and self-linking process

3.1. Raw materials

The flax tows were supplied by CALIRA (Coopérative Agricole

Linière de la Region d’Abbeville, France). The flax-tows, generated
from the stripping process, are a significant fraction of lignocellu-
losic volume. They are made of insufficient quality fibers for the Fig. 4. SEM analysis of flax tow (magnification = 500).
924 N.E. Hajj et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 34 (2011) 921–928

Fig. 5. Flax-tow elementary fiber (magnification = 2500).

Fig. 6. Lin-K process for self-linked composites (felt).

Table 1
Flax fiber composition (Lucas et al., 2007).

Polysaccharides Lignin (%) Cellulose Hemicelluloses

(%) (%)
Flax fibers 15 5 67
Flax-shaves 10 24 53
The test of water absorption was conducted in neutral media on
the different fractions of crude flax-tows (flax fibers and shaves
contained in crude flax-tows). The maximal absorption rate of
each constituent of the crude flax tow can estimate the amount of
water needed for manufacturing process, depending on the prop-
erties referred to the final material. The saturation absorption rates
of the different constituents of crude flax-tows are presented in
Table 2.
3.2. Manufacturing process
The crude flax-tow used in this process does not undergo
cleaning and contain a rate of flax-shaves by mass around 50%.
The process (Fig. 6) is a self-linking fibrous fractions through the
extraction and recombination of internal substances of vegetable
fractions during a thermal process, in a wet phase, at low temper-
ature and atmospheric pressure.
The manufacturing process of self-linking composites consists
mainly of 2 steps of design and 5 steps of manufacturing:
• Design steps:
1. Dry formulation: determining the nature and proportions of
vegetable fractions and any dry additives. In this study, we
used only flax-tow.
2. Wet phase formulation: determining the composition and pro-
portions of water and optional additives using the saturation
index.
• Self-linked composite manufacturing:
(%) 3. Defining the parameters of the grinding of vegetable con-
13 stituents.
13 4. Management of the component proportions, of the uniformity
and thermal conditions of the mixture.
5. Thermal cure: management of operating conditions: power
of the oven, curing time, thickness and homogeneity of the
mixture.
6. Managing compaction in wet phase: adaptation of the load.
7. Drying wet mats: management of operating conditions: time,
temperature and ventilation.
The extracted internal substances produce a gel that will ensure
the cohesion of the material. Studies showed that a better extrac-
tion will be made from a power of 750 W with a conventional
microwave oven and for a report of curing time on dry mass of
flax-tow equal 3 (time (s)/mass dry flax-tow = 3).
The best mechanical strength is obtained with a solvent which
is water. The saturation index (IS ) is an information that allows
to determine the amount of water to add to any kind of mixture of
vegetable fractions involved in the manufacture of self-linked com-
posites. The saturation index has been defined by similarity with
the relative humidity on water vapor in the air, as the ratio between
the actual water content by weight and the weight content of water
saturation. In other words, the saturation index is the mass of use-
ful water to the mixture relative to the mass of water necessary for
saturation.
use
MH
ωreal O
Is = = sat2 (2)
ωsat MH O
2
Is : saturation index; ωreal : weight content of actual water; ωsat :
weight content of water saturation; MH use : water mass to use;
O 2
sat : water mass at saturation.
MH
2O
In practice, the following steps are performed:

Table 2
• Evaluation of the weight content of water saturation of each flax-
Saturation absorption rate of the different fractions of crude flax-tows.
tows fraction:
Constituents Saturation rate WAbs (%)
sat (i)
MH
Flax shaves 330 ± 30 O
700 ± 15
ωsat (i) = 2
(3)
Flax fibers Ms (i)
 N.E. Hajj et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 34 (2011) 921–928 925

Fig. 7. Fresh mat compaction.

• Determining the dry mass proportion r(i) of each flax-tows frac-

tion of the mixture:
Ms (i)
r(i) = (4)
Ms (mix)

MS (i): mass of each flax-tows fraction; MS (mix): mass of crude

flax-tows (mixture of different fractions).
• The choice of the saturation index Is of the mixture corresponding
to process conditions:

ωreal (mix)
Is = (5)
ωsat (mix) Fig. 8. Microstructural analysis of self-linked composites by scanning electronic
microscopy (magnification: 1000).
ωreal (mix): weight content of actual water in the mixture of flax-
tows fractions; ωsat (mix): weight content of water saturation;
• Determination by calculating the amount of usable water to the The analysis of infrared spectra made by (Dupré, 2005) sug-
mixture: gests that the observed gel would be formed mainly from pectins.
The presence of calcium ions in significant quantities promoting
use (mix)
MH O gelation was detected in this gel by X analysis (Dupré, 2005). The
ωreal (mix) = 2
= Is · ωsat (mix)
Ms (mix) involvement of lignin is not excluded but has not been proven
 definitively. Investigations are continuing.
use
= Is ωsat (i) · r(i) ⇒ MH O (mix)
2
i 3.3. Results and discussion

= Is · Ms (mix) ωsat (i) · r(i)
The characterization of these agro-composites has concerned
i the mechanical, thermal, acoustic and hydral performances.

Crude flax-tows consist of about 50% by weight of fibers (cleaned

3.3.1. Influence of flax-tow size on the mechanical and thermal
flax-tow) and 50% of flax-shaves. The absorption rate of the flax
self-linked composites properties
fibers is about 700% and the flax-shaves one is about 330%. To
Two parameters were studied: the rate of compaction and the
reach the saturation of crude flax-tow, we need cleaned flax-tows
degree of grinding tow.
and shaves present are saturated. The saturation index is IS = 1 and
To highlight the effect of compaction rate on the thermal per-
ωsat (mix) = 0.5(7 + 3.3) = 5.15.
formance of self-adhesive composites, the thermal conductivity of
When setting in mold, a light compaction is performed. The
2 mm flax-tow were determined for two compaction rate 0.6 and
compaction rate is defined as the ratio of the final height of the
0.9 (Table 3).
fresh material (after compaction) on its initial height (before com-
The thermal conductivity decreases a value of 0.024 W m−1 K−1 ,
paction) (Fig. 7). For example, the compaction’s rate equal 0.6
the density about 45 kg/m3 and the rupture flexural stress about
corresponds to an average load of 19.96 kN for surface application
0.07 MPa by decreasing the compaction rate from 0.9 to 0.6, i.e.,
(16 × 16 cm2 ).
in increasing compactness. The thermal performance is worse
The microstructural analysis of these self-linked composites
with a compaction rate of 0.6 instead of 0.9 but the mechanical
reveals the presence of an organic gel that sheath the flax tow and
strength is better. For the remainder of the study we will maintain
provides a link between these fibers (Fig. 8).
a compaction rate of 0.6. The rupture flexural stress and the ther-
Dupré (2005) studied by infrared spectroscopy the flax-tow in
mal conductivity of self-linked composites from different flax-tow
wet phase before and after the heat treatment by microwave. He
grinding with a compaction rate equal 0.6 were also measured.
showed that the microwave treatment can migrate to the surface
Table 4 summarizes the rupture flexural stress and thermal
of fibers, a number of compounds. A portion is water-soluble and
conductivity of different self-adhesive composites. The transition
is partially removed with water during the formatting. Another
from 1 mm flax-tow to 10 mm decrease by half the rupture flexural
remains localized around the fibers ensuring their protection and
stress and about 45 kg/m3 the density which is due to the fact that
cohesion.
According to some authors (Bledzki and Gassan, 1999; Jauneau
et al., 1994; Morvan et al., 2003; Rihouey et al., 1995), in the fiber Table 3
cells of flax, cell walls and the periphery of the cell junctions appear Influence of the compaction rate in the thermal and mechanical properties of self-
linked composites.
to be composed of pectins with adjacent blocks of polysaccha-
rides and methyl-esterified acids. The more acid junction’s cell core Compaction rate  (kg/m3 ) Rupture  (W m−1 K−1 )
would be especially rich in calcium bridges and acetylated alcohol flexural stress
 r (MPa)
functions. Moreover, the presence of acetylated polysaccharides
isolated by the calcium chelator is known to be characteristic of 0.6 215 ± 5 0.25 ± 0.05 0.09 ± 0.003
0.9 170 ± 10 0.18 0.065 ± 0.006
the cell walls of mature fibers.
926
Table 4
Mechanical and thermal properties of self-linked composites with different flax-tow
grindings.
Flax-tow  (kg/m3 ) Rupture flexural
grinding (mm) stress  r (MPa)
1 225 ± 3 0.3 ± 0.02
2 215 ± 5 0.25 ± 0.05
10 180 ± 10 0.15 ± 0.04
the more grinding is more fine, hydrosolubles extraction increase
during microwave heat treatment which will form an organic gel
ensuring the rigidity of these composites.
There is a slight influence of grinding degrees on the thermal
conductivity of such materials. It decreases with the increase of the
size of flax-tow. Thus, it appears that more we use coarse grinding;
better is the thermal performance of self-linked composites due to
the fact that the material is more porous.
The flexural strengths of these materials are comparable to that
of polystyrene foam ( = 20 kg/m3 and  r = 0.21–0.31 MPa (Beghin,
2000; Wyart, 2008).
The grinding of flax tow, to a degree less than or equal to 1 mm, is
very difficult to achieve in an industrial setting: this was confirmed
in laboratory tests. Therefore, it was decided to continue testing in
grades easily reproducible in the industry in spite the grinding size
less than 2 mm is useful for very specific applications.
3.3.2. Compressibility and reversible deformations
An exploratory study was made to highlight the mechanical
behavior of 2 mm flax-tow self-adhesive composites in com-
pression. This test allows us to understand the behavior of the
self-linking composite in compression, which will help us to under-
stand the behavior of sandwich panels in the future that has like
core self-linking composite and external layers from stiffer mate-
rials.
Under a compressive stress, the composite is gradually crashed,
the organic gel that binds the fiber breaks, the air escapes and the
density increases from 215 to 550 kg/m3 . The flax-tows are grad-
ually compressed and the material’s microstructure changes and
especially the porosity. This leads to a stiffening of the sample
resulted by a steady increase of the curve slope. The curve of Fig. 9
shows the high compressibility of the self-adhesive composites. At
beginning of the test, the slope is about 1.42 MPa. At the end, the
slope increases to reach 182 MPa. The elastic limit in compression
is about 1.5 MPa, beyond this strain the composite cannot return to
its original volume but it keeps a residual elastic effect. This is the
pseudo-elastic field.
0.9
0.8
Sound absorption coefficient
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 1000
Fig. 10. Influence of the flax-tows size grindings on the acoustic absorption coefficient of the self-linked composites.
N.E. Hajj et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 34 (2011) 921–928
 (W m−1 K−1 )
0.1 ± 0.0035
0.09 ± 0.003
0.08 ± 0.0025
Fig. 9. Stress–strain graph for 2 mm flax-tow self-linked composite in compression.
3.3.3. Acoustic performances
Given the high porosity and low density of these materials, the
study of the acoustic absorption behavior was privileged. The rep-
resentative parameter measured is the absorption coefficient ˛.
When ˛ = 1, all the energy of the incident wave is dissipated. The
sound is fully depreciated. When ˛ = 0, the sound is not damp-
ened at all. This coefficient ˛ depends on the sound frequency. In
general, it is measured over the entire frequency range and then
averaged over frequencies bands called octaves. This allows easier
comparison between these materials. For insulation, we must seek
a good compromise between a certain density and good absorption
capacity.
In the construction field, we use the frequency range from 100
to 4000 Hz.
The graph of Fig. 10 shows the different values of absorption
coefficient using two flax-tows grinding self-adhesive composites.
The continuous curve in blue represents the 10 mm flax-tows and
the dashed green curve represents the 2 mm flax-tows composite
for a fixed thickness of 5 cm.
We notice that for 10 mm flax-tow composites, the absorption
coefficient on all frequency bands is 16% higher than 2 mm flax-tow
materials.
Moreover, values of acoustic absorption coefficient of such
material (based on 10 or 2 mm flax-tow) are greater than 0.5 over
almost the entire frequency range thereby justifying its use as a
sound absorbing panel.
These values are high compared to other products (Table 5) such
as bricks whose absorbing properties are virtually non-existent
because they are tight and do not let enter the acoustic wave. Sim-
ilarly, they are better than expanded polystyrene which has low
acoustic absorption properties because of its closed cell structure
(˛ < 0.4,  = 20 kg/m3 ). These values are close to those of an acous-
10 mm Flax-tow
2 mm Flax-tow
2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Frequency (Hz)
 N.E. Hajj et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 34 (2011) 921–928 927

Table 5
Compaction rate = 0.6 Compaction rate = 0.9
Acoustic characteristics of some materials.

Thermal Conductivity
0,16
 (kg/m3 ) ˛
0,14

(W/(m.K))
Self-linked composite 215 0.5–0.85 0,12
0,1
Rockwool 70 <0.95 (SPECTRA, in press)
0,08
Bricks 1800 <0.05 (Cerezo, 2005) 0,06
Wood concrete 600–900 >0.55 (Cerezo, 2005) 0,04
Cellular concrete 350–650 0.21–0.32 (Cerezo, 2005) 0,02
Expanded polysterene 20 <0.4 (Kemisol Isolatie, 2005) 0
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Relative humidity RH (%)
20
Fig. 13. Evolution of the thermal conductivity of self-linked composites as a function
Wads (%)

15
of relative humidity.
10

5
0 thermal conductivity
0 1 2 3 4 5
Time (Day)
Fig. 11. Adsorption kinetic of agro-linked composites at 25 ◦ C and RH = 90%.
tic polyurethane foam type ST608 with acoustic coefficient ranging
from 0.32 to 0.85 and of those of rockwool (˛ < 0.95,  = 70 kg/m3 ).
3.3.4. Hydrous behavior (vapor adsorption) of self-linked
composites
Our objective is to assess the water transfer in these compos-
ites from the curves expressing the water content of the material
under different ambient humidities. These curves allow knowing
the amount of moisture uptake by this type of composites com-
pared to the reference dry state. These results can then be taken
to study the influence of water on the thermal and mechanical
performances of these materials.
The adsorption kinetics of such composite (2 mm flax-tow) at a
temperature of 25 ◦ C and a relative humidity RH = 90% is shown in
Fig. 11.
The self-linked composites have a relatively high maximum
moisture uptake that can reach 15 ± 1.5% for a relative humidity
RH = 90%. This maximum is reached only after 4 days. The greatest
change in mass occurs within the first 24 h.
A preliminary study shows that the size of grinding does not
affect significantly the adsorption rate. It remains, for 10 mm flax-
tow composites, around 15%.
The variation in the adsorption rate as a function of the relative
humidity is shown in Fig. 12.
The measured water contents show that the amount of water
present in self-linked composites remains low under hygrometers
frequently encountered as for RH = 50% it is around 5%. In the same
atmosphere, these values are similar to the adsorption rate of insu-
lation materials such as flax and hemp wool that may go up to 20%
with RH = 90%.
20
Moisture uptake
3.3.5. Influence of the relative humidity on the self-linked
6 To study the influence of moisture on thermal conductivity of
self-linked composite, the thermal conductivity of two compos-
ites exposed to relative humidity varying between 0% and 90% was
measured. The samples tested are based on 2 mm flax-tow with 2
compaction rate: 0.6 and 0.9.
Fig. 13 shows the evolution of the thermal conductivity of this
agro-composite as a function of relative humidity.
For 2 mm flax-tow composites with a compaction rate of about
0.9, the thermal conductivity increases by about 15% compared to
the dry conductivity from 0.06 to 0.07 (W m−1 K−1 ) between HR = 0
and HR = 50%. The thermal conductivity is even higher than 0.11
(W m−1 K−1 ) for HR = 90% with an increase of around 88%.
For composites with a compaction rate of about 0.6, the thermal
conductivity increases by about 13% between RH = 0% and RH = 50%.
It reached the value of 0.14 (W m−1 K−1 ) for RH = 90% with an
increase of about 60%.
These results show that under normal operating conditions
inside a building, the thermal conductivity increase stay reasonable
and should allow the incorporation of such material in sandwich
structures for thermal insulation and sound absorbing panels. In
the case of using as an interface with outside, the outer layers will
also have to limit water exchange with the atmosphere.
4. Conclusion
In this study, self-linked flax-tows materials for thermal insu-
lation and sound absorbing using the patented process Lin-K were
produced.
The present investigation studied the effects of flax-tows size on
the mechanical, thermal, hydrous and acoustic properties of these
green composites. The manufacturing process and the compaction
rate have very significant effects on these performances also.
The mechanical properties such as three point flexural strength
at failure decrease as a function of flax-tow size. However, the
thermal conductivity of these composites decreases with the incre-
ment of the size grinding of flax-tow that gives better thermal
performances. This decrement is due that the use of thin flax-
tows led to a less compacity of these composites. The use of

bigger size of flax-tows increases the acoustic absorption coeffi-

15
Wads(%)

cient.
10 The environment has very significant effects on thermal stability
and the durability of the self-linked composites.
5 The materials studied in this work have interesting thermal and
0 acoustic performances (thermal conductivities that vary between
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 0.06 and 0.09 W m−1 K−1 and acoustic coefficient more than 0.5)
associated with sufficient mechanical properties that allow incor-
Relative humidity RH (%)
porating them into sandwich panels in combination with materials
Fig. 12. Evolution of the moisture uptake rate as function of the relative humidity. more mechanically resistant.
928 N.E. Hajj et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 34 (2011) 921–928
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Picardie region for its finan-
cial support, the CALIRA (Coopérative Agricole linière de la region
d’abbeville) and the Préfecture de Picardie. A special thanks to Nico-
las Montrelay, Gerard Marichal and Felix Foucart for their support
in this study.
References
Baley, C., 2004. Fibres naturelles de renfort pour matériaux composites. Techniques
de l’ingénieur, AM 5, 130.
Beghin, B., 2000. Le cahier technique du PSE. Bulletin ECO PSE, no. 7, Fiche no. 4,
Décembre 1999–Janvier 2000.
Bledzki, A.K., Gassan, J., 1999. Composites reinforced with cellulose based fiber. Prog.
Polym. Sci. 24, 221–274.
Cerezo, V., 2005. Propriétés mécaniques, thermiques et acoustiques d’un matériau
à base de particules végétales: approche expérimentale et modélisation
théorique. Thesis of Institut national des sciences appliquées de Lyon, June 16,
2005, Lyon.
Collet, F., Achchaq, F., Djellab, K., Marmoret, L., Beji, H., 2011. Water vapor proper-
ties of two hemp wools manufactured with different treatments. Constr. Build.
Mater. 25 (2), 1079–1085.
Dobircau, L., Sreekumar, P.A., Saiah, R., Leblanc, N., Terrié, C., Gattin, R., Saiter, J.M.,
2009. Wheat flour thermoplastic matrix reinforced by waste cotton fiber. Com-
posites: Part A 40, 329–334.
Dubois, D., Von-Robaeys, E., 1995. Non-tissé à base fibre de lin et procédé de fabri-
cation. French Patent: FR2705369.
Dupré, B., 2005. Contribution à la valorisation des coproduits du lin: Etude de
l’impact du vécu et de la variabilité génétique sur les propriétés des composites
élaborés. Thesis of Picardy Jules Verne University, Amiens, France.
Gustafsson, S.E., 1991. Transient plane source techniques for thermal conductivity
and thermal diffusivity measurements of solid materials. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 62
(3), 797–804.
ISOVER. L’isolation thermique et acoustique des parois: Florapan plus. Electronical
website, www.isover.fr.
Jauneau, A., Cabin-Flaman, A., Morvan, C., Pariot, C., Ripoll, C., Thellier, V., 1994.
Polysaccharides distribution in the cellular junctions of immature fibre cell of
flax seedlings. Histochem. J. 26, 226–232.
Kemisol Isolatie, 2005. Les caractéristiques acoustiques. Documentation technique
V CE, 2005, pp. 43–45.
Klamer, M., Morsing, E., Husemoen, T., 2004. Fungal growth on different insulation
materials exposed to different moisture regimes. Int. Biodeterior. Biodegrad. 54,
277–282.
Kozlowski, R., Malgorzata, M., Bozena, M., 2011. Comfortable, flexible upholstery fire
barriers on base of bast, wool and thermostable fibres. Polym. Degrad. Stabil. 96,
396–398.
Lucas, N., Dupré, B., Nava-Saucedo, J.E., Sylvestre, F., Queneudec, M., 2007. Valori-
sation de coproduits agricoles pour la conception d’écomatériaux d’isolation:
Etude de la Biodégradabilité. In: Récents Progrès en Génie des Procédés No. 63,
Th8, No. 96, ISBN 2-910239-70-5Ed. SFGP, Paris, France.
Mangal, R., Saxena, N.S., Sreekala, M.S., Thomas, S., Singh, K., 2003. Thermal prop-
erties of pineapple leaf fiber reinforced composite. Mater. Sci. Eng. A 339,
281–285.
Morvan, C., Onzighi, C.A., Girault, R., Himmelsbach, D.S., Driouich, A., Akin, D.E., 2003.
Building flax fibres: more than one brick in the walls. Plant Physiol. Biochem.
41, 935–944.
Quéneudec, M., Dupré, B., Dheilly, R.M., 2005. Procédé de fabrication de feutres végé-
taux à partir d’étoupes. French patent: FR 2869254. European extension, EP 1
588 815 A1.
Rihouey, C., Morvan, C., Jauneau, A., Demarty, M., 1995. In vivo content of inorganic
cations in cells and cell walls of flax seedlings during their development. Plant
Physiol. Biochem. 33 (4), 509–517.
Satyanarayana, K.G., Arizaga, G.G.C., Wypych, F., 2009. Biodegradable compos-
ites based on lignocellulosic fibers – an overview. Prog. Polym. Sci. 34,
982–1021.
SPECTRA: Mousse acoustique. Technical datasheet of SPECTRISOL.
Stamboulis, A., Baillie, C.A., Peijs, T., 2001. Effects of environmental conditions
on mechanical and physical properties of flax fibers. Composite Part A 32,
1105–1115.
STRAMIT, 2006. Panneau de Paille Compressé pour Cloison et Doublage Intérieur.
Projet ATex – Rev 5-07/12/2006.
Thomas, R., Rolf, M., Gerald, O., 2002. Fiber bonding – uses pectin and compression
to form sheet of flax jute or hemp. Patent: DE4242538. (C2).
Wyart, D., 2008. Polystyrène expansé ou PSE. Technique de l’ingénieur. AM3341,
2008.
Yu, Z.C., Alcock, M., Rothwell, E., Mckay, S., 2009. Development of non-woven biofibre
mats for composite reinforcement. In: The 17th International Conference on
Composite Materials ICCM 17 , Edinburgh, UK.