Polyurethane foam (PUF) is an exceptionally adaptable product that has a variety of applications—it can be found almost everywhere. Due to such high utilization, the amount of polyurethane foam waste generated each year is growing over time. Rebonding polyurethane foam waste is a suitable way to progress towards a circular economy. In this paper, the prospect of using rebonded polyurethane foam (RPUF) in noise control applications is examined. An experimental study was carried out on RPUFs with various thicknesses and densities. The sound absorption coefficients at normal incidence and air resistivity were measured. The five-parameter Johnson-Champoux-Allard (JCA) model was adopted for the simulation of the porous layer. The remaining unknown parameters of the JCA model were estimated by inverse acoustic characterization based on fitting the transfer matrix method (TMM) model of an unbounded porous layer with rigid backing to the experimentally obtained sound absorption coefficients. Furthermore, sound absorption coefficients were calculated for a wide range of sample thicknesses, as well as for different air gap thicknesses between the wall and the porous layer. For some of the considered RPUFs, a sound absorption coefficient above 0.8 was achieved over a wide frequency range.

The textile industry is one of the oldest industries and the third most important industry branch in Macedonia. It has had a steady increase in production over the years. Growing production line proportionally generates textile waste. Although it is terminologically categorized as waste, textile waste can be a valuable resource and is one of the textile industry’s main challenges. Textile waste, appropriately treated with the possibilities offered by the recycling process or used as a clean waste, can find multi-faced application in different construction areas. This paper covers research that examines the possibilities of applying textile waste in the field of thermal insulations in buildings. The focus is on developing thermal insulation solutions applied in sustainable and ecologic buildings. Applied thermal insulation has a primary impact on reducing electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions associated with indoor air conditioning. That would mean that buildings incorporating appropriate thermal insulation offer greater comfort, directly increasing the quality of life. This is an additional economic-environmental dimension. According to the experimental testing, the thermal conductivity coefficient of the textile waste is obtained at 0.039 W/m·K. Its value defines a thermal insulation material suitable for the purpose and has approximate values to the other materials usually used for thermal insulation in buildings. Implementing a product made of textile waste with appropriate performance would bring economic benefits to the industry and open new job opportunities.

The building envelope makes the most significant contribution to the reduction of building energy consumption. The application of new, alternative and improved materials and systems has an important impact on the performance of buildings. This paper is focused on thermal transmittance as an indicator of thermal conduction of the construction element. It includes comparisons of the U-values calculated by software with those measured in-situ on three representative façade walls. The walls have been constructed with the new wall system Fragmat NZ-1, a new product in Macedonian buildings. This research provides basic information on the thermal transmittance of the system. The results of the analysis show that in-situ measuring is a useful tool in validating the precision of analytically calculated values, since it was difficult to obtain precise results from the analytical calculations only, especially when the layers have non-uniform thickness.

The energy consumption of buildings can directly affect the buildings users' budget and their satisfaction with the investment in the property. Vice versa, buildings energy consumption has a social implication on the buildings' users....

The building envelope has the most significant contribution in the reduction of the building energy consumption. Application of new, alternative and improved materials and systems has an important impact on the buildings performances. This paper is focused on the thermal transmittance, as an indicator of the thermal conductance of the construction element. It includes comparisons of the U-values, calculated by software, with those measured in situ on three representative façade walls. The walls have been constructed with the new wall system Fragmat NZ-1, a new product in Macedonian buildings. This research provides basic information on the thermal transmittance of the system. The results of the analysis show that the in situ measuring is a useful tool in validation of the precision of analytically calculated values, since it was difficult to obtain precise results from the analytical calculations only, especially when the layers are with non-uniform thickness.