VILNIUS TECH Library invites you to follow the published new dissertations. The dissertation „Developing and investigating a plant-based loose-fill thermal insulation material“ prepared by VILNIUS TECH Nerijus Augaitis. The dissertation was prepared in 2018–2025. Scientific consultant – Dr Saulius Vaitkus.

The dissertation was defended at the public meeting of the Dissertation Defence Council of the Scientific Field of Materials Engineering in the Aula Doctoralis Meeting Hall of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University at 10 a.m. on 16 June 2025.

The dissertation examines loose-fill thermal insulation materials from wood processing waste. The dissertation aims to create a fire- and water-resistant, environmentally friendly and energy-efficient loose-fill thermal insulation material from wood waste. The dissertation consists of an introduction, three chapters, general conclusions, lists of literature and sources, the author’s scientific publications on the topic of the dissertation, and a summary in English. The introduction chapter discusses the research problem and the relevance of the work, describes the research object, formulates the aim and objectives of the work, describes the research methodology, scientific novelty of the work, practical significance of the work results, and defendable statements. The introduction closes by presenting the author’s publications, participation at conferences on the topic of the dissertation, and the structure of the dissertation. The First Chapter analyses literature sources on the variety of thermal insulating composites, their classification, types of structure, raw materials and additives used, methods and possibilities of use in construction, and discusses their operational properties. At the end of the chapter, conclusions are formulated, and the dissertation tasks are specified. The Second Chapter presents the properties of plant-based raw materials: nWC – uncleaned pine sawdust, WC – cleaned pine sawdust, MB – wood bark, LT-HS – Lithuanian hemp shives, FR-HS – French hemp shives, components used for coatings – liquid glass, tung oil, and expandable graphite, used for the production of loose-fill thermal insulating materials, and the research methods selected to study the structure and physical properties of pine wood chips with multi-component coatings. The Third Chapter presents the research on plant-based raw materials and their selection for forming loose-fill thermal insulating materials. It focuses on the effect of a multi-component suspension on the thermal conductivity coefficient, water absorption, surface humidity, water vapour permeability, thermal stability, and flammability properties of loose-fill thermal insulating materials. It presents the results of structural studies of loose-fill thermal insulating materials from pine sawdust covered with multi-component suspension coatings. The topic of the dissertation has been published in three scientific articles: in the Web of Science database Science Citation Index Expanded peer-reviewed publications with a citation index.