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An experimental study of the heat transfer in PS foam insulation

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Abstract

Heat transfer mechanisms in 14 samples of vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) are examined to reveal the influence of porous foam structure on VIP performance. The samples were produced by in-house equipment that was able to vary the foam structure by modulating the process temperature and pressure. Two parameters are proposed to describe the foam structure, namely, the broken cell ratio and the average cell size. Under a specific solid volume fraction, the average cell size shows a linear dependence on the broken cell ratio. Furthermore, the radiation and conduction heat transport data correlate well with these parameters. Radiation heat transfer increases as the broken cell ratio (cell size) increases, but solid conduction decreases as the broken cell ratio (cell size) increases. Consequently, an optimum broken cell ratio (cell size) exists such that the total heat transport is minimum under a specific solid volume fraction. However, the majority of VIP heat transfer is solid conduction. Solid conduction accounts for more than 80% of the total heat transport and is largely affected by the solid volume fraction. A rule of thumb for improving VIP performance is to reduce the solid volume fraction as much as possible to eliminate solid conduction, and maintain the cell size at an optimum value that is dependent on the solid volume fraction.

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Abbreviations

d c :

cell size (μm)

f s :

solid volume fraction (Vs/Vt)

f s+g :

volume fraction of combined solid and gas

i λ :

spectral intensity of radiation

k s :

thermal conductivity of solid

k s+g :

the equivalent thermal conductivity of combined solid and gas

k r :

the thermal radiation conductivity

k t :

the equivalent total thermal conductivity

m :

the weight of the sample

q s+g :

the heat flux of combined solid and gas

q r :

radiation heat flux

q t :

total heat flux

T m :

the arithmetic mean of the boundary temperatures (K)

V b :

the broken cell volume

V s :

the volume of solid

V s+g :

the volume of combined solid and gas in the unbroken cell

V t :

the apparent volume (total volume)

V tb :

the volume of all the cells

V ub :

the volume of gas in the unbroken cell

ρ f :

apparent density or foam density (kg m−3)

ρ s :

the density of the solid, 991.96 (kg m−3)

ρ s+g :

the density of the combined solid and gas in the unbroken cells (kg m−3)

σ :

Stefan–Boltzmann constant, 5.67 × 10−8 W m−2 K−4

σ e :

Rosseland mean extinction coefficient, Eq. (7)

σ eλ :

spectral extinction coefficient, τ λ , spectral transmittance, Eq. (8)

ϕ :

broken cell ratio, Vb/Vtb, Eq. (9)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, HsinChu, 300, Taiwan, ROC

    Pen-Chang Tseng & Hsin-Sen Chu

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  1. Pen-Chang Tseng
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  2. Hsin-Sen Chu
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Correspondence to Hsin-Sen Chu.

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Tseng, PC., Chu, HS. An experimental study of the heat transfer in PS foam insulation. Heat Mass Transfer 45, 399–406 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-008-0417-1

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