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Heat Transfer in Polypropylene‐Based Foams Produced Using Different Foaming Processes
Author(s) -
Antunes Marcelo,
Velasco José Ignacio,
Realinho Vera,
Martínez Antonio B.,
RodríguezPérez MiguelÁngel,
de Saja José Antonio
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
advanced engineering materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1527-2648
pISSN - 1438-1656
DOI - 10.1002/adem.200900129
Subject(s) - materials science , thermal conductivity , polypropylene , composite material , thermal conduction , heat transfer , extrusion , dissolution , anisotropy , relative density , conductivity , thermal , chemical engineering , thermodynamics , microstructure , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
This paper presents the characterization of the cellular structure and thermal conduction behaviour of polypropylene foams produced using different foaming processes, with the aim of selecting the best possible PP foam thermal insulator. Thermal conductivity results have shown that the global heat transfer behaviour is controlled by the relative density. For relative densities higher than 0.2, thermal conductivity differences were insignificant, the data being predicted by the mixture's rule and Russell's model. In the low density range, all of the proposed models underestimated the overall conductivity, the effect of the processing method being more significant, slight differences being observed between foams produced by extrusion and those produced by gas dissolution with higher cell sizes and anisotropies. Foams with finer cellular structures showed to be better insulating materials.