Effect of Loss of Blowing Agents on Thermal Insulation Properties of Polystyrene Foams

This paper presents a numerical study to characterize the effect of loss of blowing agents on the thermal insulation properties of polystyrene foams. In this study, a transient cell-to-cell diffusion model is developed to predict the loss of the blowing agents. The Mie theory is used to quantify the radiative conductivity. A cubic-series-parallel approach in analogy with electric circuits is employed to acquire the thermal conductivity of the gas-polymer matrix. The effects of foam morphology and blowing agent type on the loss of blowing agents and the resulting thermal insulation properties of polystyrene foams are examined.