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Analysis of thermal properties and heat transfer mechanisms for polyurethane foams blown with water

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Abstract

Rigid polyurethane foam (PUF) is one of the outstanding insulation materials and has been widely used in freezers and cryogenic facilities. Among the various blowing agents used in the manufacturing PUF, water-blown PUF is attracting much attention as environmentally friendly PUF as prominent replacements for the environmentally hazardous CFCs and HCFCs due to their significant ozone depletion potential. We investigated the effective thermal conductivity of PUF blown with different amounts of water, on the basis of the heat transfer mechanisms in terms of thermal conduction of solids and gases and the thermal conductivity of radiation in the cells. A predictive model for the effective thermal conductivity of PUFs with different densities is presented. The predictive model was validated by comparing the predicted values with the experimentally measured ones. The result showed that the effective thermal conductivity increased from 0.023 to 0.027 W m−1 K−1 as the PUF density increased from 48 to 120 kg m−3: increased by 158% from 0.0034 to 0.0089 W m−1 K−1 for the thermal conductivity of solid PUF and decreased by 50% from 0.0037 to 0.0018 for the thermal conductivity of radiation.

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Abbreviations

d :

Mean cell diameter (m)

e bλ :

Spectral blackbody emissive power (W m−2 µm−1)

f s :

Fraction of solid in the struts

k foam :

Solid polymer thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

L :

Thickness of the sample (m)

n :

Refractive index of the porous media

λ eff :

Effective thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

λ g :

Conductivity of the blowing gas (W m−1 K−1)

λ r :

Thermal conductivity of radiation in the cell (W m−1 K−1)

λ s :

Thermal conductivity in solid polyurethane foam (W m−1 K−1)

S v :

Surface area to volume ratio of the cell

t cw :

Cell wall thickness (m)

T :

Mean foam temperature (K)

T nλ :

Spectral transmittance

δ :

Void fraction in polyurethane foam

σ :

Stefan–Boltzmann constant

β :

Total extinction coefficient

ρ f :

Density of the PUF

ρ s :

Density of the solid polymer

β s :

Extinction coefficient of a single polymer cell wall

σ eλ :

Spectral extinction coefficient

φ :

Constant refractivity

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Acknowledgements

The first author, Dr. Choi, thanks the Civil-military technology cooperation program funded by the ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy and Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2015R1A2A2A01006203).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LNG Cryogenic Technology Center, Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials, 80-140, Golden root-ro, Nongso-ri, Juchon-myeon, Gimhae-si, Gyeongsangnam-do, 50969, Republic of Korea

    Sung Woong Choi

  2. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea

    Jae Min Jung, Hyeong Min Yoo, Sung Ha Kim & Woo Il Lee

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  1. Sung Woong Choi
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Correspondence to Woo Il Lee.

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Choi, S.W., Jung, J.M., Yoo, H.M. et al. Analysis of thermal properties and heat transfer mechanisms for polyurethane foams blown with water. J Therm Anal Calorim 132, 1253–1262 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-6990-8

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