Category: Transient Plane Source
Author(s): Hsin Wang, Kenneth Wilkes, Ralph B. Dinwiddie
Keywords: Fiberglass, Heat shields, Insulators, Thermal Conductivity, Thermal Constants Analyzer, Transient Plane Source, Transient plane source (TPS) method
Abstract: Fiberglass is used inside car mufflers as a noise reducer and insulator. The insulating properties of the fiberglass eliminates the need for muffler heat shields, however to properly design vehicles without heat shields, it is important to know the thermal conductivity of fiberglass at high temperatures. A TPS Thermal Constants Analyzer was used to measure the thermal conductivity of glass fibers with diameters of 17 µm and 24 µm. Each sample was administered 0.1-watts of constant-power heating for 20 seconds, and thermal conductivities were measured up to temperatures of 700 °C. Thermal conductivity increased along a relatively linear trend as the temperature rose except when it followed an increasingly exponential trend between 400 °C to 500 °C. The increase of fiberglass thermal conductivity with raised temperatures could affect their efficacy as vehicular insulators.
Reference: Industrial Technologies (2003) 1-15
DOI: 10.2172/885664