scholarly journals Thermal Insulating and Mechanical Properties of Cellulose Nanofibrils Modified Polyurethane Foam Composite as Structural Insulated Material

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiqi Leng ◽  
Biao Pan

Cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) modified polyurethane foam (PUF) has great potential as a structural insulated material in wood construction industry. In this study, PUF modified with spray-dried CNF was fabricated and the physical and mechanical performance were studied. Results showed that CNF had an impact on the foam microstructure by increasing the precursor viscosity and imposing resistant strength upon foaming. In addition, the intrinsic high mechanical strength of CNF imparted an extra resistant force against cells expansion during the foaming process and formed smaller cells which reduced the chance of creating defective cells. The mechanical performance of the foam composite was significantly improved by introducing CNF into the PUF matrix. Compared with the PUF control, the specific bending strength, specific tensile strength, and specific compression strength increased up to three-fold for the CNF modified PUF. The thermal conductivity of PUF composite was mainly influenced by the closed cell size. The introduction of CNF improved thermal insulating performance, with a decreased thermal conductivity from 0.0439 W/mK to 0.02724 W/mK.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7945
Author(s):  
Matteo Vitale ◽  
María del Mar Barbero-Barrera ◽  
Santi Maria Cascone

More than 124 million tons of oranges are consumed in the world annually. Transformation of orange fruit generates a huge quantity of waste, largely composed of peels. Some attempts to reuse by-products derived from citrus waste have been proposed for energy production, nutrient source or pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries. However, their use in the building sector had not been researched. In this study, orange peels, in five different ratios, from 100% of wet peels to 75% and from 0% of dry peels to 25%, were submitted to a thermo-compression procedure. They were evaluated according to their physical (bulk density, water absorption, thickness swelling, surface soundness and thermal conductivity) and mechanical properties (bending strength and modulus of elasticity). The results showed that orange peels can be used as thermal insulation material. The addition of dried peels makes the structure of the board heterogeneous and thus increases its porosity and causes the loss of strength. Hence, the board with the sole use of wet peel, whose thermal conductivity is 0.065 W/mK while flexural strength is 0.09 MPa, is recommended.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174425912110454
Author(s):  
Neal Holcroft

The thermal properties of closed-cell foam insulation display a more complex behaviour than other construction materials due to the properties of the blowing agent captured in their cellular structure. Over time, blowing agent diffuses out from and air into the cellular structure resulting in an increase in thermal conductivity, a process that is temperature dependent. Some blowing agents also condense at temperatures within the in-service range of the insulation, resulting in non-linear temperature dependent relationships. Moreover, diffusion of moisture into the cellular structure increases thermal conductivity. Standards exist to quantify the effect of gas diffusion on thermal conductivity, however only at standard laboratory conditions. In this paper a new test procedure is described that includes calculation methods to determine Temperature Dependent Long-Term Thermal Conductivity (LTTC(T)) functions for closed-cell foam insulation using as a test material, a Medium-Density Spray Polyurethane Foam (MDSPF). Tests results are provided to show the validity of the method and to investigate the effects of both conditioning and mean test temperature on change in thermal conductivity. In addition, testing was conducted to produce a moisture dependent thermal conductivity function. The resulting functions were used in hygrothermal simulations to assess the effect of foam aging, in-service temperature and moisture content on the performance of a typical wall assembly incorporating MDSPF located in four Canadian climate zones. Results show that after 1 year, mean thermal conductivity increased 15%–16% and after 5 years 23%–24%, depending on climate zone. Furthermore, the use of the LTTC(T) function to calculate the wall assembly U-value improved accuracy between 3% and 5%.


2014 ◽  
Vol 608 ◽  
pp. 8-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Spiliotis ◽  
K. Ntampegliotis ◽  
D. Kasiteropoulou ◽  
S. Lamprakopoulos ◽  
K. Lolos ◽  
...  

The mill scale (MS) waste is produced in steel industry during the milling process from the rapid oxidization of the hot iron products, and is mainly consisted of iron oxides (>95%). The aim of this work is to evaluate the utilization of MS (known in Greece as “kalamina”) as an admixture in clay bricks manufacturing by applying extrusion and sintering processes. For that purpose, specimens were formed from various clay/MS mixtures (up to 9 wt% MS) and then fired at different temperatures (up to 1100°C). Shrinkage and weight loss upon firing as well as density, porosity, bending strength and thermal conductivity of sintered specimens were determined and studied as a function of the % MS content and the firing temperature for optimization. The experimental results show that the incorporation of MS in clay bricks production is feasible, as an efficient secondary resource, thus turning waste from one industry into useful feedstock for another one. Specifically, the mechanical performance and thermal conductivity are not significantly affected with increasing the mineral admixture percentage and the sintering temperature.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 5475
Author(s):  
Agnė Kairytė ◽  
Sylwia Członka ◽  
Renata Boris ◽  
Sigitas Vėjelis

In the current study, rigid polyurethane foam (PUR) was modified with 10–30 wt.% sunflower press cake (SFP) filler, and its effect on performance characteristics—i.e., rheology, characteristic foaming times, apparent density, thermal conductivity, compressive strength parallel and perpendicular to the foaming directions, tensile strength, and short-term water absorption by partial immersion—was evaluated. Microstructural and statistical analyses were implemented as well. During the study, it was determined that 10–20 wt.% SFP filler showed the greatest positive impact. For instance, the thermal conductivity value improved by 9% and 17%, respectively, while mechanical performance, i.e., compressive strength, increased by 11% and 28% in the perpendicular direction and by 43% and 67% in the parallel direction. Moreover, tensile strength showed 49% and 61% increments, respectively, at 10 wt.% and 20 wt.% SFP filler. Most importantly, SFP filler-modified PUR foams were characterised by two times lower water absorption values and improved microstructures with a reduced average cell size and increased content in closed cells.


2005 ◽  
Vol 480-481 ◽  
pp. 133-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.A. Reglero ◽  
Miguel A. Rodríguez-Pérez ◽  
D. Lehmhus ◽  
M. Windmann ◽  
Jose A. de Saja ◽  
...  

A collection of AlSi7 closed cell foams were fabricated following the powder metallurgical route [1,2], reaching densities between 540 Kg/m3 and 1350 Kg/m3. Thermal conductivity of the samples was determined using the Transient Plane Source technique (TPS) [3,4], and influence of density was estimated. Several models were tested, and the correlation between experimental data and theoretical results was evaluated. Finally, measurements in different directions were performed, revealing the use of the TPS technique as a non-destructive tool to investigate the existence of in-homogeneities derived from the foaming process.


2020 ◽  
pp. 026248932092923
Author(s):  
Chunhui Li ◽  
Haihong Ma ◽  
Zhengfa Zhou ◽  
Weibing Xu ◽  
Fengmei Ren ◽  
...  

Toughing melamine-formaldehyde (MF) rigid closed-cell foams were prepared by using ethylene glycol (EG) and carbon fiber (CF) as composite toughening agents. The pulverization rate, compressive strength, bending strength, cellular structure, closed-cell ratio, water absorption ratio, thermal conductivity, thermal stability, limiting oxygen index (LOI), and char yield were characterized to study the morphology, mechanical, thermal, and fire-retardant properties of as-prepared toughing MF rigid foams. The pulverization rate result showed that introduction of composite modifier can obviously improve the toughness of MF rigid foams. The cellular structure, closed-cell ratio, and water absorption results showed that the addition of EG/CF can increase the closed-cell ratio and control the cell size of MF rigid foams. The compressive strength and bending strength results showed that the incorporation of composite modifier of MF rigid foams dramatically improved the mechanical properties. The LOI, char yield, and thermal stability results showed that the toughing MF rigid foams remained more intact char skeleton with flame-retardant effect, thus reducing the fire hazards. The as-prepared toughing MF rigid foams showed the best comprehensive performance with pulverization rate of 5.21%, compressive strength of 355.3 kPa, bending strength of 0.44 MPa, closed-cell ratio of 79.1%, water absorption of 9%, thermal conductivity of 0.031 W m−1 K−1, and LOI of 39.6%. Compared with unmodified MF rigid foams, toughing rigid closed-cell MF foams possess excellent pulverization rate, compressive strength, bending strength, cellular structure, thermal insulation, and flame retardancy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hussein Muhamad Ali Karim

The paper presents an experimental investigation into the possibility of producing lightweight clay bricks by adding flakes of papyrus, locally called (Bardy). The flakes were sieved to obtain a powder with maximum particle size of 2.5 mm. The bricks were prepared with the addition of increasing amounts of flakes of papyrus (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 mass%) to the clay slurry. Different temperatures of 650, 900, and 1050°C were embayed to fire the specimens. The thermal conductivity, water absorption, porosity, bulk density, firing shrinkage, compressive strength, and bending strength of the samples were measured. It was observed that the apparent compressive strength, bending strength, firing shrinkage, thermal conductivity, and density increased with the firing temperature increase and decreased with the papyrus flakes content increase; however, water absorption and porosity showed an opposite behavior.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 737
Author(s):  
Costas Bogiatzidis ◽  
Loukas Zoumpoulakis

Composite materials that consisted of a polymer resin as matrix (PMCs), filled using construction and demolition (C&D) wastes powder of different grain sizing in micro-scale were manufactured and studied. Three different kinds of resins were used as the matrix for the purposes of this study. More specifically, composites made of epoxy and unsaturated polyester resins purchased from the market and phenolic resin (novolac) laboratory synthesized, were produced. The morphological and elemental analysis of these materials was performed through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Additionally, mechanical performance and thermal insulating efficiency of these materials were examined through bending and shear strength tests according to the three-point method and via determination of the thermal conductivity coefficient λ. C&D wastes have undergone the appropriate processing in order to prepare filling products of the required granular size in pulverized form. In this research study, construction and demolition waste-based thermosetting polymer composites were produced with flexural strength in the range 20–60 MPa, shear strength in between 1–8 MPa, and thermal conductivity coefficients in the range of 0.27–1.20 W/mK. The developed materials embedded 30–50% w/w C&D wastes, depending on the resin used as the matrix.


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