Structure Designing and Property Investigation of Flexible Multilayer Thermal Insulation Materials

Abstract

In this paper, a method of designing flexible multilayer insulation is analyzed and discussed, with focus on reducing the three basic modes of heat transfer (thermal radiation, solid spacer and residual gas conduction). The foundation for designing the new flexible thermal insulation material is provided. The insulation performances of different types (by choosing different reflection shields and spacers) of flexible multilayer insulation materials are obtained through measurements using a KES-F7 Thermal Labo II apparatus. The thermal performance of flexible multilayer insulation materials at different layers are also presented, and the best is about 20∼25 layers. To improve the thermal performance of multilayer insulation materials, treble spacers between double aluminized shields are applied. Aluminized shields with air, meshes, wool fibres, etc. are compared with each other. The aluminized shields with meshes fixed with down can reduce thermal contact, which reduces the radiation heat transfer more fully and can be more steady than the other spacers in the project applications. With the same layers and spacers, the thermal conductivity of crinkled aluminized shields is lower than that of the smooth aluminized shields. The effects of compressive loads on layer density and thermal performance are also investigated.

Citation

Chen, J. and Yu, W. (2011), "Structure Designing and Property Investigation of Flexible Multilayer Thermal Insulation Materials", Research Journal of Textile and Apparel, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 21-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/RJTA-15-03-2011-B003