Structural Insulated Panels: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

Since the emergence of construction technology, construction of affordable and environmentally-sensible home at fast pace has brought dream home within the reach. Structural Insulated Panel (SIP) has become a topic of interest among researchers in the recent years. SIP has the advantages of minimal material wastage and labour-savingness whilst having potential to save house builders' time and money as well as retaining the controlled quality. Nonetheless, it suffers from few drawbacks which should be further explored by researchers in its future design. This study present a brief overview of SIP history and common methods and materials utilised for SIP production. It reviews the recent research in the field of SIP by evaluating its application and drawbacks which enable SIP designers improve on SIP. The review of evaluating SIP application and its drawbacks clearly point to the need for further studies to progress beyond the current SIP to an improved one. It might be achieved by replacement of new material with common material used as skin and core of SIP. Considerably more research will need to be done to obtain SIP universal design standard.

Application of expanded polystyrene (EPS) in buildings and constructions: A review

“…(Reproduced from Ref. , with permission from Journal of Engineering, Project and Production Management.) [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

Understanding Construction Stakeholders’ Experience and Attitudes toward Use of the Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs) in New Zealand

“…This is a clear indication that SIPs are perceived to provide similar benefits that do pre-fabricated standard panels. Although several studies [5,7] reported that SIPs are able to reduce construction time on site, the results of the survey for builders with prior SIPs experience showed that the builders found the system more time consuming with 44% indicating that it took them longer to construct compared with 22% who indicated it was a faster system. According to the comments of the builders, lack of familiarity and understanding and too many engineering requirements and design issues are the issues which make the application of SIPs time-consuming.…”

“…. Prefabricated housing has been demonstrated as a method of reducing the amount of waste material through the factory manufacturing process and reduced on-site construction waste by minimising the amount of off cut waste material, which would typically be sent to the landfill [7,15,16]. Noteworthy mentioning that the average residential construction project in New Zealand produces on average 4 tonnes of waste during the construction process, which is sent to landfills around the country [17].…”

“…Although this method has been proven to be environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, and there is widespread acceptance among the authorities and home developers [4], that erection of wood-frame construction is considerably slower [5], which will fail to meet the increasing housing demand. Therefore, there has been an increasing worldwide interest in the adoption of pre-fabricated construction technologies, which provide faster erection, higher dimensional quality, easier on-site assembly and hence, improved on-site construction productivity [4,[6][7][8]. Likewise in New Zealand, governmental support for innovative construction methods and technologies, such as prefabricated housing, is a significant step toward the supply of documented housing demand in a more sustainable way [9].…”

Stiffness and strength of oil palm wood core sandwich panel under center point bending

“…Due to its relatively low density with an average value of 235 kg/m 3 [2], the oil palm wood has great potential to be a good alternative to replace polymer foam core commonly used in the lightweight sandwich structures [3][4][5]. Since it is a natural material, the oil palm wood possesses a large density variation ranging from 190 kg/m 3 to 580 kg/m 3 both in the cross section and along the oil palm trunk height [6].…”