This paper presents the development and characterisation of prototype wheat straw bales that have been produced specifically for use as a building insulation material. The use of straw bales still remains niche in the wider construction market. Whilst traditional straw bales can be used for either loadbearing or non-loadbearing applications, it is their thermal resistance that is of greatest benefit to building performance. There is great potential to significantly improve the thermal resistance and mechanical performance of straw bales for construction by reconfiguring the baling process to orientate the straws preferentially, and also produce bales sizes more suited for contemporary construction practices. Laboratory scale baling equipment has been developed to produce prototype bales with straws optimally orientated for thermal resistance. In a novel study Computer Tomography has been applied to investigate the internal structure and orientation of agricultural and prototype straw bales. The mechanical properties and thermal conductivity performance of novel straw bales are characterised. Changing orientation of the individual straws can improve thermal resistance by up to 28%, facilitating thinner walls, and enabling greater uptake of a novel low embodied carbon bio-based material into mainstream construction.

本文介绍了专门用于建筑隔热材料的原型小麦草捆的开发和特性。在更广阔的建筑市场中，使用草捆仍是利基市场。尽管传统的草捆既可以用于承重也可以用于非承重应用，但它们的耐热性却对建筑性能具有最大的好处。通过重新配置打包过程以优先定向秸秆，并有可能产生更适合当代建筑实践的草捆尺寸，可以极大地改善用于建筑的草捆的耐热性和机械性能。已开发出实验室规模的打包设备，以生产带有针对热阻最佳定向的稻草的原型包。在一项新颖的研究中，计算机断层摄影技术已被用于研究农业和原型草捆的内部结构和方向。表征了新型稻草的机械性能和导热性能。改变单个吸管的方向可以将耐热性提高多达28％，从而使壁更薄，并使新型低含碳生物基材料能够更广泛地应用于主流建筑。