Measurement of VIP Edge Conduction Using Vacuum Guarded Hot Plate
Abstract—Vacuum insulation panel (VIP) is a promising thermal insulator for buildings, refrigerator, LNG carrier and so on. In general, it has the thermal conductivity of 2~4 mW/m·K. However, this thermal conductivity is that measured at the center of VIP. The total effective thermal conductivity of VIP is larger than this value due to the edge conduction through the envelope. In this paper, the edge conduction of VIP is examined theoretically, numerically and experimentally. To confirm the existence of the edge conduction, numerical analysis is performed for simple two-dimensional VIP model and a theoretical model is proposed to calculate the edge conductivity. Also, the edge conductivity is measured using the vacuum guarded hot plate and the experiment is validated against numerical analysis. The results show that the edge conductivity is dependent on the width of panel and thickness of Al-foil. To reduce the edge conduction, it is recommended that the VIP should be made as big as possible or made of thin Al film envelope.
Vacuum Insulation Panels – Exciting Thermal Properties and Most Challenging Applications
Vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) have a thermal resistance that is about a factor of 10 higher than that of equally thick conventional polystyrene boards. VIPs nowadays mostly consist of a load-bearing kernel of fumed silica. The kernel is evacuated to below 1 mbar and sealed in a high- barrier laminate, which consists of several layers of Al-coated polyethylene (PE) or polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The laminate is optimized for extremely low leakage rates for air and moisture and thus for a long service life, which is required especially for building applications. The evacuated kernel has a thermal conductivity of about 4 ×  10−3 W · m−1 · K−1 at room temperature, which results mainly from solid thermal conduction along the tenuous silica backbone. A U-value of 0.2 W · m−2 · K−1 results from a thickness of 2 cm. Thus slim, yet highly insulating façade constructions can be realized. As the kernel has nano-size pores, the gaseous thermal conductivity becomes noticeable only for pressures above 10 mbar. Only above 100 mbar the thermal conductivity doubles to about 8 ×  10−3 W · m−1 · K−1, such a pressure could occur after several decades of usage in a middle European climate. These investigations revealed that the pressure increase is due to water vapor permeating the laminate itself, and to N2 and O2, which tend to penetrate the VIP via the sealed edges. An extremely important innovation is the integration of a thermo-sensor into the VIP to nondestructively measure the thermal performance in situ. A successful “self-trial” was the integration of about 100 hand-made VIPs into the new ZAE-building in Würzburg. Afterwards, several other buildings were super-insulated using VIPs within a large joint R&D project initiated and coordinated by ZAE Bayern and funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economics in Munich. These VIPs were manufactured commercially and integrated into floorings, the gable façade of an old building under protection, the roof and the facades of a terraced house as well as into an ultra-low-energy “passive house” and the slim balustrade of a hospital. The thermal reliability of these constructions was monitored using an infrared camera.
Combined radiation and conduction heat transfer in high temperature fiber thermal insulation
Abstract Three different approaches for describing combined radiation and conduction heat transfer in fiber thermal insulation at high temperatures are analyzed and compared. The considered approaches include the radiation transfer equation or its approximations, approximation of radiation thermal conductivity and the radiation diffusion approximation for radiation transfer. The first causes difficulties due to the need for experimental measurement of optical properties, while calculations based on the Mie theory may give inexact results. The second takes into account the radiation transfer inaccurately and the experimentally measured total thermal conductivity may depend on temperature drop, thickness of sample, properties of boundaries and time parameters at transient conditions. It is shown that the most preferable approach is the radiation diffusion approximation for radiation transfer. The comparison of the radiation thermal conductivity approximation and the radiation diffusion approximation is carried out for the example of modeling the working conditions of the fibrous thermal insulation of the Space Shuttle when the vehicle enters the Earth's atmosphere.