In this work, the authors tested five organic phase change materials for thermophysical properties (density, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity) in order to determine the best path to prediction (BPP) for the thermal diffusivity of organic PCMs in the liquid phase. Separate BPPs were determined for alkanes and unsaturated acids. The identified BPPs were then tested on a variety of materials and the estimated thermal diffusivity was within 15% for all ...
The authors present a method of fiber-reinforced aerogel composites by impregnation of four layers of aligned glass fibers into silica sol layer-by-layer. The effect of different fiber alignments, as well as the effect of fiber lamination on the mechanical strength of the silica aerogel composites was investigated. In addition to this, the thermal conductivity of each composite was determined. The objective of this work was to investigate whether it is ...
The authors have developed a model for the estimation of how a nanofluid will work as a coolant without having to perform a number of experiments. The nanofluids used in the study were four water based metallic oxides. These nanofluids were compared to water in terms of thermal conductivity to determine if they would be a good coolant. The model that was developed involved the calculation of the highest wall ...
Finite element and molecular dynamics models were used to study the effect of pore size and porosity on the thermal conductivity of polymeric foams. These models were then verified by measurements made using the transient plane source technique. It was determined that the pore size has a significant effect on the thermal conductivity of these foams, and that when the pore size decreases to the nanometer scale, the thermal conductivity ...
The reaction to fire properties of three commercial coatings designed for steel structures were investigated. The coatings in this study were covering a glass fiber-reinforced epoxy composite. It was determined that the thermal barrier effectiveness of these coatings was dependent on the degree of expansion and the thermal conductivity of the expanded char. Using these two parameters, the required thickness of a coating that can enable a structure to withstand ...
