Effect of porosity on thermal conductivity of porous materials

Abstract

The basic idea of porous materials has been used in different applications of engineering science especially regards to thermal insulation. In this study the effect of porosity on thermal conductivity has been investigated experimentally by using Cylindrical thermal probe (TP02® Hukseflux). During transmission the heat power in the probe, the temperature is variation as a function of the natural logarithm. The slope of the graph is representing the proportion inverse to the thermal conductivity. Different materials in terms of porosity have been selected to identify influence of porosity on thermal conductivity. At first fluid material (glycerol) with no porosity, and after that glass beads of different diameters to introduce the porosity and different types of glass wool as an example of insulation materials. Comsol Multiphysics® axisymmetric module 2-D has been used to validate the experimental results.