Radiative Properties of Expanded Polystyrene Foams

2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Coquard Rémi ◽  
Baillis Dominique ◽  
Quenard Daniel

Expanded polystyrene foams are one of the most widely used materials for a building’s thermal insulation. Owing to their very low density, a substantial proportion of the heat transfer is due to thermal radiation propagating through their porous structure. In order to envisage an optimization of their thermal performances, an accurate modeling of their radiative behavior is required. However, the previous studies on this subject used several drastic simplifications regarding their radiative behavior (optically thick material) or their porous morphology (homogeneous cellular material, dodecahedral cells). In this study, we propose a more accurate model based on a detailed representation of their complex morphology allowing us to predict their entire monochromatic radiative properties. We investigated the influence of the different structural parameters on these properties. We checked the validity of our model by comparing the spectral hemispherical reflectance and transmittance measured on slabs of foam samples with values predicted by our model. A good accordance was found globally.

2005 ◽  
Vol 128 (6) ◽  
pp. 538-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Coquard ◽  
D. Baillis

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) foams are one of the most widely used thermal insulators in the building industry. Owing to their very low density, both conductive and radiative heat transfers are significant. However, only few studies have already been conducted in the modeling of heat transfer in this kind of medium. This is due to their complex porous structure characterized by a double-scale porosity which has always been ignored by the previous works. In this study, we present a model of one-dimensional steady state heat transfer in these foams based on a numerical resolution of the radiation-conduction coupling. The modeling of the conductive and radiative properties of the foams takes into account their structural characteristics such as foam density or cell diameter and permits us to study the evolution of their equivalent thermal conductivity with these characteristics. The theoretical results have been compared to equivalent thermal conductivity measurements made on several EPS foams using a flux-meter apparatus and show a good agreement.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Coquard ◽  
J. Randrianalisoa ◽  
S. Lallich ◽  
D. Baillis

The classical photo-thermal FLASH method is a very practicable method for measurement of the conductive properties of solid materials due to its simplicity, rapidity, and to the limited size of the samples required. It has been applied successfully to a wide variety of materials. However, it is theoretically restricted to purely conductive media. Notably, it could, strictly speaking, not be used to measure the equivalent conductivity of low-density thermal insulators since a significant part of the heat transfer is due to the propagation of thermal radiation. This constitutes a major drawback of the method. Therefore, the present study investigates the possibility to extend the method to this kind of materials by estimating the errors made on the equivalent conductivity when the classical FLASH method is used. To this aim, FLASH experiments have been conducted at different temperatures on several low-density polymer foams whose radiative properties have been estimated from spectrometric measurements. By applying a least-square fit-method associated with a numerical simulation of the 1D coupled heat transfer, we managed to identify the phonic conductivities of the samples and to compute their equivalent conductivities. These values have been compared with the thermal conductivities obtained from classical FLASH method, i.e., assuming that the thermal transfer occurs only by heat conduction. It appears that the discrepancies between the conductivities stemming from the classical FLASH method and the equivalent conductivities computed are quite negligible at ambient temperature even for foams with very low densities. This demonstrates the applicability of the classical FLASH method to this type of materials for building applications. This conclusion is likely to interest foam manufacturers in view of reducing the time required for an accurate measurement of the insulating performances. On the other hand, at elevated temperatures, the errors become significant so that the method could not be considered satisfactory.


Author(s):  
Mariacarla Arduini ◽  
Manuela Campanale ◽  
Lorenzo Moro

The theory of heat transfer through low density insulating materials explains the importance of thermal radiation in the overall heat transfer. As a matter of fact, in many semitransparent insulating materials, radiation has a considerable influence on measured thermal conductivity. In this work we continue the investigation (both experimentally and theoretically) on the heat transfer through low density insulating materials that we started some years ago and whose results have been presented in some International Conferences. Test have been done on low density insulating materials: expanded polystyrene with a density of 10 kg/m3 and polyester fibres with a density of 9 kg/m3 (these last tests are not yet completed and will not be discussed in this paper). The transfer factor T was measured in the heat flow meter apparatus of our laboratory [1]. The first measurements have been done with the two surfaces of the apparatus uncoated (emissivity ε = 0.91) at a mean test temperature of 283 K (10 °C) and then with the specimens enclosed in the aluminium foils (emissivity ε = 0.045) at the same mean test temperature. The results obtained from the measurements of the transfer factor T pointed out that a change of the emissivity ε of the surfaces from 0.91 to 0.045 caused a considerable decreasing of the transfer factor. Then the same panels have been cut into two slices and the aluminium foil has been interposed also between the slices, as shield, and the transfer factor was measured again in both cases: at first with the surfaces of the apparatus uncoated and then with the surfaces of the apparatus coated with the aluminium foils. In both cases the decreasing of the transfer factor τ was not negligible. The radiation extinction parameters have been then measured with a spectrometer and a model has been found to predict the transfer factor T in function of the testing conditions. We can conclude that in presence of a thin reflective metal cover placed on a low density insulating material, the thermal conductivity decrease immediately (about 7%) with a significant improvement of the thermal characteristics of the insulating material. If we put then some low emissivity foils between the slices of the material, another considerable decreasing of the thermal conductivity can be obtained (about 10%) and in presence of both aluminum foils (inside and outside). This fact confirms the importance of the contribution of radiation in thermal transmissivity of low density insulating materials and gives the possibility to reduce and to predict the thermal performances of such a material.


2011 ◽  
Vol 393-395 ◽  
pp. 412-415
Author(s):  
Jian Hua Zhong ◽  
Li Ming Jiang ◽  
Kai Feng

In this article, finned copper tube used in the central air conditioning was acted as the discussed object. According to the combination with actual processing and theoretical calculations, Five finned tube was selected with typical structural parameters, and established their entity model using Pro/E, then the heat transfer process of finned tube was simulated through the ANSYS, the effect of the fin height, fin thickness and other structure parameters to the heat transfer enhancement of finned tube was researched. Meantime the efficiency of the heat transfer under different convection heat transfer coefficient was also studied.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gautham Krishnamoorthy ◽  
Caitlyn Wolf

This study assesses the required fidelities in modeling particle radiative properties and particle size distributions (PSDs) of combusting particles in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) investigations of radiative heat transfer during oxy-combustion of coal and biomass blends. Simulations of air and oxy-combustion of coal/biomass blends in a 0.5 MW combustion test facility were carried out and compared against recent measurements of incident radiative fluxes. The prediction variations to the combusting particle radiative properties, particle swelling during devolatilization, scattering phase function, biomass devolatilization models, and the resolution (diameter intervals) employed in the fuel PSD were assessed. While the wall incident radiative flux predictions compared reasonably well with the experimental measurements, accounting for the variations in the fuel, char and ash radiative properties were deemed to be important as they strongly influenced the incident radiative fluxes and the temperature predictions in these strongly radiating flames. In addition, particle swelling and the diameter intervals also influenced the incident radiative fluxes primarily by impacting the particle extinction coefficients. This study highlights the necessity for careful selection of particle radiative property, and diameter interval parameters and the need for fuel fragmentation models to adequately predict the fly ash PSD in CFD simulations of coal/biomass combustion.


1995 ◽  
Vol 387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Y. Wong ◽  
Ioannis N. Miaoulis ◽  
Cynthia G. Madras

AbstractTemperature measurements and processing uniformity continue to be major issues in Rapid Thermal Processing. Spatial and temporal variations in thermal radiative properties of the wafer surface are sources of non-uniformities and dynamic variations. These effects are due to changes in spectral distribution (wafer or heat source), oxidation, epitaxy, silicidation, and other microstructural transformations. Additionally, other variations are induced by the underlying (before processing) and developing (during processing) patterns on the wafer. Numerical simulations of Co silicidation that account for these factors are conducted to determine the radiative properties, heat transfer dynamics, and resultant processing uniformity.


Author(s):  
Qihang Liu ◽  
G.Q. Xu ◽  
Jie Wen ◽  
Yanchen Fu ◽  
Laihe Zhuang ◽  
...  

Abstract This paper presents a multi-condition design method for the aircraft heat exchanger (HEX), marking with light weight, compactness and wide range of working conditions. The quasi-traversal genetic algorithm (QT-GA) method is introduced to obtain the optimal values of five structural parameters including the height, the tube diameter, the tube pitch, and the tube rows. The QT-GA method solves the deficiency of the conventional GA in the convergence, and gives a clear correlation between design variables and outputs. Pressure drops, heat transfer and the weight of the HEX are combined in a single objective function of GA in the HEX design, thus the optimal structure of the HEX suitable for all the working conditions can be directly obtained. After optimization, the weight of the HEX is reduced to 2.250 kg, more than 20% lower than a common weight of around 3 kg. Based on the optimal structure, the off-design performance of the HEX is further analyzed. Results show that the extreme working conditions for the heat transfer and the pressure drops are not consistent. It proves the advance of the multi-condition design method over traditional single-condition design method. In general, the proposed QT-GA design method is an efficient way to solve the multi-condition problems related to the aircraft HEX or other energy systems.


Author(s):  
Yuan Bin Liu ◽  
Jun Qiu ◽  
Rong Jin ◽  
Lin Hua Liu

In this work, we investigated the reflection properties of artificial opals composed of submicron silica spheres with diverse structural parameters and under the effect of light in different states. Furthermore, the primary rules how the reflection properties of artificial opals convert as these factors changing have been revealed clearly. These factors can take effects in changing the shape, value, and position of the peak of the hemispherical reflectance of artificial opals. Then we got the distribution and propagation process of the Poynting vectors corresponding to the positions of the diffraction peak and the low reflectance in the artificial opals at normal and oblique incidence of P-polarization. Comparing with the theoretical interpretation which is a little complicated and nonobjective, this paper will provide a visual result to explain the reason why the structure has high reflectance in some spectral ranges.


Author(s):  
H. Jürgensen ◽  
D. Schmitz ◽  
G. Strauch ◽  
E. Woelk ◽  
M. Dauelsberg ◽  
...  

For the growth of an electrically pumped lasing nitride emitter, the development of the MOCVD equipment and the process are mutually dependent. Most important is the implementation of the rapid temperature changes that are required between the growth of the different layers of a device structure. Equally important is to provide a reaction chamber that develops a stable gas phase at all growth temperatures used in the process. In this paper we will give insight in the technology and the relationship between processes and equipment. The development of the reation chamber was supported by mathematical modeling that formed the basis for the selection of appropriate process parameters for growth of group-III nitrides. The modeling consists of the numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations coupled with heat transfer and mass transport of the chemical species. The modeling of radiative heat transfer takes into account the effect of changing surface radiative properties. These changes result from the coating of the reactor inner surfaces during the growth run. Coupled flow dynamics and chemistry including homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions play an important role for predicting growth rate distributions on the susceptor area. At the practically used high temperatures, group-III metalorganics turn out to be almost entirely decomposed and it is the mass transport of these decomposition products to the growing layer that is assumed to control the growth rate in accordance with experimental observations.AIXTRON GmbH


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