Physical and Mechanical Properties of Fungal Mycelium-Based Biofoam
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 7
Abstract
This paper presents an innovative fungal mycelium-based biofoam. Three different mixing protocols with various substrate materials, including wood pulp, millet grain, wheat bran, a natural fiber, and calcium sulfate, and two packing conditions were tested to produce samples for physical, thermal, and mechanical property characterization. Dry density, thermal conductivity, elastic moduli, Poisson’s ratio, and compressive strength were obtained. It was found that densely packed samples following Mixing Protocol II have the highest dry density, elastic moduli, compressive strength, and comparable thermal conductivity, and have met or exceeded like characteristics of the conventional polymeric thermal foams except dry density. The results demonstrate that this biofoam offers great potential for application as an alternative insulation material for building and infrastructure construction, particularly in cold regions, or as light-weight backfill material for geoengineering applications.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully appreciate the financial support provided by the Innovate Award from the University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, United States. The authors are especially thankful to Dr. Helena S. Wisniewski for her encouragement and support for this study. Last, but not least, the authors express appreciation to the following individuals for their contributions to this project: Dr. Fred Rainey, Dr. Bjartmar Sveinbjörnsson, John Moore, Tim Kirk, and Dasha Petrov.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 7 • July 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 1, 2016
Accepted: Oct 26, 2016
Published online: Mar 23, 2017
Published in print: Jul 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Aug 23, 2017
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