Keywords: polymers, waste, recycling, insulation, finite element analysis, thermal bridge.

The use of waste and waste material is a frequent topic, which corresponds to current trends associated with the decreasing of power exiguity and sustainable development. The current capacity of natural resources is limited in the same way as the possibility of storing waste produced by the human population. The tool to reduce usage of natural resources and decrease the waste produced consists of an efficient and possibly repeated use of resources (resource recycling). An important subgroup of waste is formed by polymers (PP, PE, PET, PVC, PUR, etc.). The possibility of their recycling results from thermal plasticity. Another advantage of using polymers consists of the possibility of the next improvement of their properties (resistance against atmospheric ageing, fire technical resistance, thermal and mechanical properties etc.).

Out of a huge quantity of the waste polymers mentioned it is possible to select such for the purposes of subsequent reuse (recycling) in civil engineering. The example of polymers meeting the requirements of thermal and mechanical properties suitable for using in civil engineering is the waste polypropylene PP and waste polyethylene PE in low-density LDPE or high-density HDPE form. The above polymers represent more than 50% of the total global production of polymers. This high production is associated with the high production of waste, which can be used as a source of material usable for other applications.

Current trends in the energy savings in one branch of civil engineering includes the construction of low-energy and passive houses. These are houses, in which it is possible to achieve substantial thermal comfort from the environment in the winter and in the summer without any individual active heating or air-conditioning system. This new concept is associated with the need that has arisen to solve the practical details both in terms of the design and material. Especially the details of the footings of the perimeter casing in contact with the foundation and the composition of the inner floor brings about substantial problems. In this place thermal bridges originate due to the decrease in the heat resistance of the structure, if this problem is not solved.

There are two methods of solution: (1) the non-direct solution: the insertion of thermal insulation under the adjusted terrain and (2) the direct solution: the insertion of thermal insulation directly at the location of the thermal bridge. For the second method a wall footing detail solution was designed. A new product consisting of an insulation block made use of recycled polymers in a modified PP and HDPE form.

This paper describes in detail the solution of breaking the thermal bridge in a wall footing detail using an insulation block made from recycled polymers in an mHDPE form. It more closely deals with problems of measuring the thermal and mechanical properties of mHDPE. A finite element analysis (FEA) (thermal and static) made using the ANSYS system was used for the design and assessment of the presented insulation block. The FEA proved the ability of insulation block to act reliably in the structure and for the purpose, for which it was proposed.

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