Physical and Chemical properties of Rockwool fibres and their melts

The brittleness of fibres is believed to be a major determining parameter for the quality of mineral wool. It relates to general acceptance of product quality as well as to important commercial parameters such as compressibility and recovery. The project has three equally important goals: 1) To investigate the most important mechanisms causing brittleness of stone wool fibres; 2) To establish an active and dynamic environment on glass science at AAU, that on selected issues is among the world leaders; and 3) To educate two Ph.D. students. The research will be focused on the five aspects of fibre brittleness: 1) defining the brittleness of fibres; 2) finding a method to determine the brittleness of fibres; 3) Brittleness as a function of chemical composition; 4) Brittleness as a function of manufacturing conditions (cooling rate etc.); and 5) Brittleness as a result of corrosion. We intend to evaluate fibres manufactured as a single filament in parallel to fibres made on Rockwool production facilities. The first gives the possibility to control the fibre forming conditions to a much larger extent than on the spinning machines, the results of the later is closer to implementation. The previous research led to a high scientific level on fibre evaluation by DSC. Preliminary investigations by use of DSC indicate that crystallisation behaviour to some extent can be correlated to the brittleness of fibres. Further development of the DSC application can prove to bring valuable information on the fundamentals of brittleness and to provide a simple method for determination of fibre brittleness. The DSC related work is the backbone of the project. However, the DSC measurements by themselves are insufficient to make the knowledge applicable. It is in the interaction with other types of measurements that the DSC demonstrates its force to explain and predict properties.