abstract
The use of thermal insulation materials is regarded as the most effective passive measure of energy savings in buildings. Rigid polyurethane foams (RPU) are commonly used as the insulation layers of opaque building envelope solutions, as well as for other applications in field of transportation, textile industry and electrical appliances, accounting for almost one-third of the polyurethane market. In the assessment of the energy performance of buildings, insulation materials, such as RPU foams have good insulating properties - low thermal conductivity - however their thermal regulation capacity can be enhanced by the incorporation of phase change materials (PCMs). In this paper, three different approaches (flux meter approach, the guarded hot plate approach and the transient plane source approach) are presented to determine the thermal conductivity of RPU foams with and without the incorporation of PCMs based on steady state method and transient method. In addition, this work presents and discusses the comparison between measurements amongst the three approaches revealing the important factors that should be considered to determinate the thermal conductivity of the RPU foams with PCMs, particularly in the temperature range during PCMs phase change transition (solid/liquid state). (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
keywords
CHANGE MATERIALS PCMS; ENERGY STORAGE-SYSTEMS; FLOW METER METHOD; BUILDING APPLICATIONS; INSULATION MATERIALS; OPTIMIZATION; TECHNOLOGIES; CALIBRATION; MODEL
subject category
Construction & Building Technology; Energy & Fuels; Engineering
authors
Amaral, C; Vicente, R; Ferreira, VM; Silva, T
our authors
Cláudia Patrícia Cândido do Amaral
PhD Student
Tiago Manuel Rodrigues da Silva
Collaborator
Victor Miguel Carneiro de Sousa Ferreira
Associate Professoracknowledgements
The present work was developed under the scope of the project: MF-Retrofit - Multifunctional facades of reduced thickness for fast and cost-effective retrofitting [EeB.NMP.2013-1 Grant Agreement to: 609345]. Thanks are due to University of Aveiro, FCT/MEC for the financial support to the research Unit RISCO - Aveiro Research Centre of Risks and Sustainability in Construction (FCT/UID/ECl/04450/2013) and CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007679 (FCT Ref. UID/CTM/50011/2013), financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and when appropriate co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement.