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Ŕ periodica polytechnica The historical development of thermal
Architecture insulation materials
41/2 (2010) 49–56
doi: 10.3311/pp.ar.2010-2.02 Dávid Bozsaky
web: http:// www.pp.bme.hu/ ar
c Periodica Polytechnica 2010
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Received 2011-04-07
Abstract 1 Introduction
The history of thermal insulation materials is not as long as The history of thermal insulation is not as long as that of
that of other materials, but the necessity of insulation is as old other building constructions. Long ago thermal insulation did
as building activity. Prehistoric people built shelters to protect not form a separate layer in building construction because there
themselves from the elements, originally using organic materials was no need to build in extra materials to assure the insulating
and later more durable substitutes. function.
However people used not only materials that were found in The process of building activity appeared when prehistoric
nature, but discovered others which were suitable for insulat- human beings first created shelters themselves. The main rea-
ing. Processing organic materials produced the first insulated son for this activity was protection against wild animals and the
panels in the 19th century: meanwhile an increasing range of elements (cold winters, hot summers), i.e. insulation from the
artificial materials were developed (rock wool, fibreglass, foam surroundings.
glass, hollow bricks, expanded perlite). Accordingly we can reasonably assume that one of the most
The appearance of plastic foams caused a huge revolution. important requirements for building construction is the neces-
Although plastic production was well-known in the 19th century, sity of adequate thermal insulation which is as old as building
the first plastic foam was not produced until 1941. activity itself and has existed since prehistoric times.
Nowadays the most popular insulation materials are plastic
foams and mineral wool with only a small amount of natural 2 The early history of thermal insulation
materials being produced. The overall growth of these products The first prehistoric peoples built temporary dwellings from
has been substantial due to a wide range of reasons. same materials that they used for clothing. The most common
materials were animal skins, fur, wool and plant related prod-
Keywords ucts like reed, flax or straw, but their lifespan was limited. Later
history · development · thermal insulation material because of the settled lifestyle and the development of agricul-
ture they needed more durable materials for housing, like stone,
wood and earth.
Both earth-sheltered houses and cave dwellings were built at
the same time and it appears they were very popular because of
their inherent benefits. Their implementation was cheap and an
earth covering assured excellent protection against wild animals,
fire and during periods of fighting. In addition earth houses use
soil as a magnificent insulating blanket, as due to the high den-
sity of earth, the inside temperature changes very slowly. This
phenomenon is called thermal lag which is why earth covering
keeps the interior warm in winter and cool in summer.
The houses in the Neolithic village of Skara Brae (Orkney
Island, Scotland) are the oldest known – nearly 5.000 years old
– earth-sheltered, green roofed dwellings in the world (Fig. 1)
Dávid Bozsaky
but we can come across similar buildings in cold climatic areas
Department of Architecture and Building Construction, Széchenyi István Uni-
like Scandinavia, Iceland, Russia, Greenland and Alaska.
versity, H-9026 Győr, Egyetem tér 1., Hungary
e-mail: bozsaky@gmail.com
At the end of the 19th century the techniques of planning and
the help of this technology was put on the market in 1951 under
the name of Styropor
. R thermal insulation, switchable thermal insulation, nanocellular
foams and vacuum insulation panels (VIP).
5.2 Polyurethane foam [8, 11]
To manufacture polyurethane foam (PUR), the invention of 7 Conclusions
the third method of producing plastics was necessary. Polyaddi- Summarizing the development of thermal insulation materi-
tion was invented accidentally in the United Kingdom in 1933 als we can separate five different periods of time. Each period
by laboratory engineers of the Imperial Chemical Industries started with a significant step in the historical development of
(ICI), Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett. humanity, science or industry. These were the main causes of
They researched the chemical reactions of various organic change in the market of thermal insulation materials that re-
compounds at high temperature and under high pressure. sulted in the appearance of a new or disappearance of an old
One day they reacted ethylene (C2 H4 ) with benzaldehyde product (Table 2).
(C6 H5 CHO) in the expectation of creating a new kind of ke- If we analyze the market for thermal insulation materials it
tone. They left the reactor vessel switched on all night and in is clear that the most popular products are the artificial materi-
the morning they found a small amount of a white waxy solid als. Mineral wool products represent about 50-55% and plastic
that today is known as polyethylene. foams about 40-45% of the total production.
Applying their technology in 1937 Otto Bayer (1902-1982) It became clear in the last century that the amount of fos-
in Leverkusen (Germany) prepared polyurethane in the research sil fuels is finite and they will be exhausted within a relatively
laboratory of IG Farbenindustrie AG (today Bayer AG) with a short time. In addition the serious issue of the 21st century, that
reaction of glycol and polyisocyanate. During World War II of climate change and global warming results largely from the
polyurethane foam was applied as an aircraft coating but the emissions of greenhouse gases (especially CO2 ) from the use of
final breakthrough came in the 1950s when the production of fossil fuels.
polyisocyanates became possible. The first commercial insulat- Heating is around 70-80% of the total energy consumption of
ing panel made of polyurethane foam was produced in 1954. In a normal family house. Heat loss can be reduced with the help
those days these panels were poorly workable and they tended of thermal insulation so the costs of heating and CO2 emission
to distort, but the development of mounted polyurethane panels can be reduced at the same time.
has made it possible to use them as a common building insula- The production of artificial thermal insulation materials needs
tion material. significant amounts of energy and further use of fossil fuels,
therefore the demand for natural thermal insulation materials is
6 New thermal insulation materials after the 1950s on the rise. For example in Germany the production of them has
After the 1950s plenty of other new thermal insulation mate- grown from 1% to 6% in the last two decades (Table 2).
rials were introduced. Some of them were also plastic foams. Their production requires much less energy so their spread
Polyester foam (PES) and polyethylene foam (PE) were in- should be substantial. Unfortunately this is not the case as peo-
vented in the 1950s. Phenolic foam (PF) and formaldehyde ple are wary of them. They have several disadvantages in re-
foam (UF) appeared in the 1970s and melamine foam (MF) ar- lation to artificial materials (flammability, low durability, often
rived in the 1990s[10]. poor dimensional stability, hazards associated with rodents, in-
Work to develop new thermal insulation materials contin- sects etc.) and their advantages (environmentally friendly, eco-
ues, with the most successful products likely to be transparent nomical, inexpensive) are often relegated to the background.
2.5 mill - 7000BC nomadic materials for clothing animal skins, fur, wool
lifestyle
2000 -
experiments with new transparent thermal insula-
materials tion, swichable thermal in-
sulation, nanocellular insula-
tion, vacuum insulation pan-
els