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Heat transfer in low-density eps foams

Article · January 2005

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Rémi Coquard Dominique Baillis

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HEAT TRANSFER IN LOW-DENSITY EPS FOAMS
Rémi COQUARD*, Dominique BAILLIS** and Daniel QUENARD*
*
Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB), 24 rue Joseph FOURIER, 38400 Saint Martin d’Hères, France.
**
Centre de Thermique de Lyon, UMR CNRS 5008, Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon 69621 – Villeurbanne Cedex – France
e-mail : dominique.baillis@.insa-lyon.fr
INTRODUCTION
Among all the different porous media used for the building
thermal insulation, Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foams are the most
widely sold after glass wools. They represent approximately 25% of
the total building insulation market. They are generally classified
among the cellular materials but their porous structure is, in fact,
more complex than a simple cellular matrix. This structure is
characterized by a double-scale porosity as a result of their
production process. Owing to their very low density comprised
between 10 and 30 kg/m3, both conductive and radiative transfers are
significant, leading to a coupling between these two modes of heat
transfer.
Numerous studies have dealt with radiative and conductive heat
transfer through porous materials. Fibrous materials have been the
most widely studied. We can cite as examples, the work of Lee [1],
Jeandel et al. [2] on silica fibres, Milos and Marschall [3] on rigid
fibrous ceramic insulation or Milandri [4]. Other researchers worked
on glass foams (Fedorov and Viskanta [5]), packed beds (Kaviany
and Singh [6], Kamiuto [7]) or cellular foams (Glicksman et al. [8]).
However, only few studies have already been interested in the
modeling of heat transfer in EPS foams.
Then, Glicksman et al. [8] proposed a general study of radiative
and conductive transfer through cellular foam insulation but they
only consider materials with densities much greater than EPS foams.
Baillis et al. [9] proposed a model but applied to open cell carbon
foam. Kuhn et al. [10] studied more precisely heat transfer through
EPS foams but they also study materials with density greater than 20
kg/m3. Moreover, both studies neglected the coupling between
radiative and conductive transfer and simply added the contributions
of conduction and radiation. They also treated the radiative heat
transfer using the Rosseland approximation. These two
simplifications are restrictive and are no more valid for foams with
density lower than 20 kg/m3.
In the present study, we propose a model to treat the total heat
transfer in low density EPS foams, less than 20 kg/m3, based on a
numerical resolution of the conduction-radiation coupling. The
modeling of the radiative and conductive properties, needed for the
numeric calculation, are inspired by previous studies and take into
account the particular structure of EPS foams. First, we describe this
particular porous structure. Then, we present precisely the model
retained. We compare two cellular model : dodecahedric and cubic
shapes windows. When density decreases, radiative contribution
increases and it is important to verify the validity of the model in this
law range of density less than 20 kg/m3 which is very rarely studied.
Finally, we check the validity of these theoretical results by
comparing the equivalent thermal conductivity of several EPS foams
(with different density, thickness sample, cell diameter) measured by
a guarded hot plate apparatus, with those predicted by our model.
DESCRIPTION OF THE STRUCTURE OF EPS
FOAMS
As a result of the production process, EPS foams are
characterized by a double-scale porosity. Indeed, as shown on the
photograph of figure 1, the porous structure of EPS foams is not
homogeneous and is, in fact, composed of two different types of
pores:
- Cellular pores with regular shape, contained in the beads
Tanger, Maroc du 15 au 17 Novembre 2005
12èmes Journées Internationales de Thermique
- Pores with irregular shape, formed during the second
expansion of the cellular beads by the interparticle space.
The order of magnitude of the size of the pore contained in the
beads is approximately 100 µm, whereas it is close to one to several
mm for the pores formed during the second expansion. Then,
subsequently, we will use the term “microporosity” and
“macroporosity” respectively to make a distinction between the two
types of pores.
The macroporosity εinterbead due to the interparticle space formed
during the second expansion varies between 4% and 10% for the
standard EPS foams. Generally, the lower the density of the foam is,
the lower the macroporosity is. The diameter Dbead of the compressed
beads is relatively homogeneous in the foam and we will assume
afterwards that all the beads in a given foam have the same diameter.
As regards the cellular medium contained in the compressed
beads, its porosity εcell is very high and varies approximately between
97% and 99%. The shape and the size of the cells are relatively
homogeneous. Therefore, we will assume subsequently that all the
cells belonging to the same foam have the same dimensions.
Most of the previous researchers who dealt with the internal
morphology of EPS foams like Quenard et al. [11] or Kuhn et al.
[10] assumed that the cellular medium have a dodecahedral shape
(see figure 2). Thus, each cell is composed of twelve pentagonal
windows of polystyrene joined by their edge. The cellular material is
then perfectly closed. Owing to the very high porosity of the cellular
medium, the thickness of the faces is negligible when compared to
their size. We will assume like Kuhn et al. [10] that this thickness is
constant all over the surface area of the windows and the entire
polymer is supposed to be contained in the pentagonal windows.
Modeling of the one dimensional coupled heat transfer
In order to quantify the performances of thermal insulators,
people working in the building insulation industry use a characteristic
called “equivalent thermal conductivity” (noted Kequ) giving
information on the total heat flux passing through a slab submitted to
a one dimensional steady state heat transfer in cartesian coordinates.
Indeed, this configuration corresponds to the thermal conditions
encountered by the insulator during its using. Thus, in the rest of the
article, we will only consider this kind of heat transfer.
Numerical resolution of the energy equation
The coupling conductive and radiative heat transfer is governed
by the energy equation explaining the thermal equilibrium in the
material. For a one dimensional steady-state heat transfer, this
equation is:
δ q c δq r
+ = 0 (1)
δz δz
δT
with qc = − K c and
δz
δq c δ ²T δk c δT δ ²T
= −Kc − . ≈ −Kc (2)
δz δ z ² δ z δz δz ²
The energy equation can be reformulated:
δ ²T δqr
Kc = (3)
δz ² δz
This equation can be solved numerically by an iterative
process using the control volume method. The principle of this
method is to divide the slab thickness in elementary control volumes.
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The temperature of the medium at the center of each volume has to
be calculated in order to know the temperature distribution in the
medium. The iterative process goes on as follows. First, an initial
temperature distribution in the medium is chosen, for example
linearly dependent on the z coordinates. Using this initial temperature
distribution, the radiative problem is solved and the radiative heat flux
δq r
divergence is calculated in each control volume. A new
δz
temperature distribution is then calculated from this heat flux
divergence distribution in order to satisfy the energy equation (8).
From this new temperature distribution, the radiative problem is
solved again, a new radiative heat flux divergence distribution is
calculated … and so on. The previous process is repeated until the
difference between the temperature distribution obtained for two
successive iterations is lower than a very small value synonymous
with convergence. The total heat flux passing through the slab could
then be computed in each control volume by adding the conductive
and radiative heat flux.
Numerical resolution of the Radiative Transfer Equation
To compute the radiative transfer divergence distribution
it is necessary to solve the Radiative Transfer Equation (RTE)
governing the spatial and angular distribution of monochromatic
radiation intensity Iλ(z,µ) in the medium. For a one dimensional heat
transfer with azimuthal symmetry, this equation is expressed by :
δI λ (z , µ )
= − β λ I λ (z, µ ) + κ λ I λ (T ) +
µ 0
δz
1 (4)
σλ
2 ∫−1
φ λ ( µ ' → µ ) I λ ( z, µ ' )dµ '
and the hot (h) and cold (c) faces boundary conditions :
1
I λ (0, µ > 0) = ε hλ I λ (Th ) + 2(1 − ε hλ ) I (0,− µ ' )µ ' dµ '
∫
0 medium (cellular phase) whereas the other phase is dispersed in
0
(5)
1
I λ (l, µ < 0) = ε cλ I λ0 (Tc ) + 2(1 − ε cλ ) I (l, µ ' )µ ' dµ '
∫ Kc =
0
σλ, κλ and βλ = σλ + κλ characterise the ability of the medium to
scatter, absorb and attenuate the radiation with wavelength λ
Φλ(µinc→µsca) characterizes the probability, for a radiation incident
from an elementary solid angle around the direction with directing
cosine µinc=cosθinc, to be scattered in an elementary solid angle
around the direction µsca=cosθsca
Several numerical methods can be used to solve the RTE.
However, the Discrete Ordinates Method (DOM) is the most
frequently used and gives accurate results. In the present study, we
use it. The angular discretization permits to replace the angular
integrals by finite summations over nd discrete directions with given
weighting factors w. The spatial discretization must be the same as
the one used for the numerical resolution of the energy equation. The
DOM has already been explained in numerous previous publications
and we will not describe it here more precisely. The accuracy of the
results is strongly dependent on the angular discretization. We then
choose a very fine discretization dividing the 2π radians in 180
directions of 1° and whose weighting factors are proportional to the
solid angle they encompass.
Theoretically, the RTE has to be solved for the entire
wavelengths and the radiative heat flux divergence distribution is
computed by integrating the contributions of each wavelength:
∞ ⎡ ⎤ but also to their porous structure.
δq r
Nbd
δz ∫
( z ) = κ λ ⎢4π . I λ0 ( z ) − 2π
⎢⎣
∑ j =1
I λ , j ( z ).w j ⎥.dλ (6)
⎥⎦
0
th
where the subscript j refers to the j discrete direction
Tanger, Maroc du 15 au 17 Novembre 2005
12èmes Journées Internationales de Thermique
In practice, to limit computational time and memory
requirements, the spectral integration is made by considering that the
intensity field in the slab is constant in N wavelengths bands covering
the entire wavelengths. Then we have,
δq r
N ⎡ Nbd ⎤
=
δz i =1 ⎢ ∑
κ i ⎢4π . I i0 ( z ) − 2π ∑ I i , j ( z ).w j ⎥.∆λi (7)
⎥⎦
⎣ j =1
where the subscript i refers to the ith band and ∆λi is the width of the ith
band
Modeling of the radiative and conductive properties of EPS
foams
In order to solve the energy equation as well as the RTE, and
then evaluate the total heat transfer, the effective thermal conductivity
KEPS and the monochromatic radiative properties σλ, κλ, βλ and
Φλ(µinc→µsca) of EPS foams have to be determined.
Determination of the effective thermal conductivity
In the case of EPS foams, the constituents are air (thermal
conductivity Kair) and polystyrene polymer (thermal conductivity
KPS) and the internal structure is characterized by two different types
of pores which differ from their size and shape. To take into account
this specific structure, we choose the approach proposed by Quenard
et al. [11] which divided EPS foams in different phases. One phase
corresponds to the macroporosity of air and the other phases to the
cellular materials contained in the beads. In the case of EPS foams
with low-density, we have analyzed several SEM photographs of the
cellular medium and we have deduced that we can assume that the
cellular material is homogeneous in the beads and then that EPS
foams can be divided in only two phases: a gaseous phase and a
cellular phase. The effective thermal conductivity resulting from the
interaction of the two phases can be estimated by the model of De
Vries which assumes that one phase constitutes a continuous
spherical inclusions which do not interact with each other. We then
have:
(1 − ε int erbeads ).K cell + G air .ε int erbeads .K air
(8)
(1 − ε int erbeads ) + G air .ε int erbeads
1
where G air =
(1 + 1 / 3 × ( K air / K cell − 1))
The thermal conductivity of the cellular medium Kcell depends
on the conductivity of air and polystyrene and the cellular porosity
εcell, and is calculated by the correlation of Glicksman which is
commonly used :
(2 − f s )
K cell = ε cell .K air + K PS .(1 − ε cell ). (9)
3
where fs, the proportion of polymer in the cell struts is equal to 0 for
EPS foams
The values of the thermal conductivity of air and polystyrene
are:
KPS= 0,16W/m/K
and K air = 0,02624 + 7,94.10 −5 × (T − 300) W/m/K when
T > 300 K
K air = 0,02624 + 7,58.10 −5 × (T − 300) W/m/K
when T < 300 K
Modeling of the monochromatic radiative properties of EPS
foams
Like the effective thermal conductivity, the radiative properties
of EPS foams are closely related to the properties of its constituent
Equivalent radiative properties of the cellular medium
Under the assumption of independent scattering, the equivalent
radiative properties of the porous medium could be calculated by
simply adding the radiative characteristics of each particle present in
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an elementary volume. These radiative characteristics are : the
absorption cross section Ca,λ(m²), the scattering cross section Cs,λ(m²),
the extinction cross section Ce,λ= Ca,λ+ Cs,λ (m²) and the scattering
phase function Φλ(θ).
In the present study, we compute the radiative properties of the
PSE foam assuming that it is made of a cloud of randomly oriented
cell windows which scatter radiation independently. The windows
are supposed to have a constant thisckness.
Two types of cellular model are compared : dodecahedric and
cubic. In the case of dodecahedric cells, the windows are perfect
pentagon whereas in the case of cubic cells, the windows are squares.
In order to compute the radiative characteristics of a particle, it is
necessary to consider a plane, monochromatic wave incident upon
this particle and apply optic geometric laws [10].
Given that PSE foam is only constituted by
windows, its radiative properties could be determined
from the radiative characteristics of the particles by :
κ = N part × Ca ,λ ; σ = N part × C s ,λ ;
β = κ + σ and φ (θ ) = φ (θ ) (10)
where Npart is the number of particles per unit volume
of cellular medium
For dodecahedric cells, there is 6 windows per cell and
6 14.06
then N part = ≈ 3 (11)
Vcell Dcell
For cubic cells, there is 3 windows per cell and
3 3
N part = = 3 (12)
Vcell Dcell
RESULTS
Experimental validation of the theoretical model
The model presented in this study has been made in order to take
into account as faithfully as possible the characteristics of EPS foams.
However, some assumptions have been made to simplify the
problem especially during the modeling of the radiative properties
(geometric optics hypothesis, assuming no struts, unique cell size
….). Then, in order to check the accuracy of the theoretical results,
we have compared the equivalent thermal conductivities predicted
by the model with experimental measurements made on seven usual
EPS foam slabs using the guarded hot plate apparatus of the CSTB.
The experimental conditions are the following: εc,λ = εhλ= 0.9
The structural parameters of the different foam slabs have been
determined using characterization techniques developed by the
CSTB and are summarized in Table 1.
The theoretical calculations have been made using the
discretizations previously specified. The comparison of the
theoretical and experimental equivalent thermal conductivities is
illustrated on figure 10 where we have depicted their variations
according to the foam density.
First, we notice that there is a relatively good agreement between
experimental and theoretical results. The worst theoretical results are
found for slab N°2 for which the relative difference between
predicted and measured equivalent conductivities is 11% when
dodecahedric cells are considered and 6% for cubic cells. For the
other slabs the maximal relative difference is 9% and 4% for
dodecahedron and cube. We can also remark that the theoretical
models generally tend to overestimate the equivalent conductivity
whatever the characteristics of the slab and that the predictions are
more accurate when we consider cubic cells instead of
dodecahedron. Besides, the cubic cells assumption gives always very
accurate results.
One can also remark that, the theoretical observation concerning
the influence of the density are confirmed by experimental results as
there is a regular decrease of the measured equivalent conductivity
Tanger, Maroc du 15 au 17 Novembre 2005
12èmes Journées Internationales de Thermique
when the foam density increases, except for the slab N°5 and 7
which have a relatively weak mean cell diameter. For these two
slabs, the equivalent conductivity is greater than the average
experimental evolution deducted from the experimental results of the
other foams which have mean cell diameters close to each other.
This observation tends to show that small cells tend to enhance
radiative heat transfer. Experimental results for slabs N°5 and 7 are
then in perfect agreement with theoretical conclusions for
dodecahedric cells and cubic cells as well.
Conclusions
Although they are commonly used in the building industry as
thermal insulator, Expanded Polystyrene foams have not been the
subject of numerous thermal studies. To our knowledge low density
Expanded Polystyrene foams smaller than 20 kg/m3 have never
been studied before. Heat transfer in this kind of medium is then
badly known. In the present article, we propose a model designed to
predict conductive and radiative coupled heat transfer in low-density
EPS foams. The radiation/conduction coupling is solved using
accurate numerical resolution method of the energy equation and
radiative transfer equation.
The validity of the theoretical model applied to low density
Expanded Polystyrene foam has been checked by comparing the
predicted equivalent thermal conductivities of several foams to
measured values. The accuracy of the theoretical results proved to be
quiet satisfactory. Moreover we have shown that cubic cells
assumption gives always more accurate results than dodecahedron
cells
This paper could be very useful for optimizing their insulating
performances during their production process.
REFERENCES
[1] Lee, S.C., 1989, “Effect of fibre orientation on thermal radiation
in fibrous media”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer;
32(2), p 311
[2] Jeandel G., Boulet P. and Morlot G. , 1993, “Radiative
transfer through a medium of silica fibres oriented in parallel planes”,
Int. J. Heat Mass Tr. , 36 (2), p 531
[3] Milos F.S.and Marshall J., 1997, “The calculation of
anisotropic extinction coefficients for radiation diffusion in rigid
fibrous ceramic insulations” , Int. J. Heat Mass Tr., 40 (3), p 627-634
[4] Milandri A., 2000, “Détermination des paramètres radiatifs d'un
isolant fibreux :théorie de Mie, ocillateur de Lorentz et méthodes
inverses ” Ph.D, Université Nancy I.
[5] Fedorov A.G. and Viskanta R., 2000, “Radiation
characteristics of glass foams” , Journal of the American Ceramic
Society, 83 (11), p 2769-2776
[6] Kaviany M. and Singh B.P., 1992, “Modelling radiative
transfer in packed beds”, International Journal of Heat and Mass
Transfer, 35 (6), pp 1397-1405
[7] Kamiuto K., Iwamoto M., Nishimura T. and Sato M. 1991,
“Albedos and asymmetry factors of the phase function for packed-
spheres systems” , Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and
Radiative Transfer, 46 (4), pp 309-316
[8] Glicksman L., Schuetz M. Sinofsky M., 1987, “Radiation Heat
Transfer in Foam Insulation” , ASME Journal of heat transfer, 109
(August), pp 809-812
[9] Baillis D. , Raynaud M. and Sacadura J.F., 2000,
“Determination of spectral radiative properties of open cell foam
insulation. Model validation” , AIAA Journal of Thermophysics
and Heat Transfer, Vol. 14, N°2, pp 137-143.
[10] Kuhn J., Ebert H.P. Arduini Schuster M.P. Buttner D. and
Fricke J., 1992, “Thermal transport in Polystyrene and
Polyurethanes Foam Insulations” , International Journal of Heat and
Mass Transfer, 35 (7), pp 1795-1801
[11] Quenard D., Sallee H. Menneteau F.D. and Giraud D.,
1996, “Heat transfer in the packings of cellular pellets :
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microstructure and apparent thermal conductivity,” Proc. 14th
European Conference on Thermophysical properties, Lyon

Slab ρEPS Dcell Dbead εinterbead l Thot Tcold

n° kg/m3 µm mm % mm K K
1 8.7 200 5.6 6.1 61.5 304.3 287.8 Cellular pores
2 11.25 150 5.3 5.1 50.8 304.1 287.7
3 12.8 160 5.1 7.1 50.4 304 287.8
4 14.6 180 3.6 11.0 49 304.6 287.8
5 12.5 110 4 13.2 60.1 304.2 287.8
Macroporosity
6 13.2 180 3.8 14.2 49 303.9 287.8
7 17 80 3.2 8.1 49.2 304 287.8

Table 1: Structural characteristics of the foam slabs

N°1
N°2 N°5
50
N°3 N°7
N°6 N°4
40
Keq Average experimental evolution for
mW/m/K slabs N°1,2,3,4 and 6
30

20 Measured values
Theoretical values (Dodecahedric cells)
Theoretical values (cubic cells)
10

0
8 10 12 14 16 18
3
Density of the slab in kg/m

Figure 10: Evolution of the theoretical and experimental equivalent conductivities

with the foam density

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