Evitherm Project
Data Bases for Thermal Insulation
1. Essential contents
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Customer details - who/what/where
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Customer interests – industry/application/material/temperatures etc
2. Customer needs
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General – advice/measurement/standard/regulation/organisation
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Specific – material//application/testing data and uncertainty limits etc
3. Where/how obtained (cross referenced and indexed lists)
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Methods of measurement (best practice guides if available)
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Relevant material/test method documentation
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Relevant international/national organisations
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Measurement organisations
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Regulatory requirements
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Measurement organisations/consultants/specialists
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Equipment suppliers
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Books/publications/meetings/courses/newsletters/key papers
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Selected bibliography
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Properties databases (primarily thermal performance in terms of thermal
resistance/apparent thermal conductivity/
Examples of Lists
Test Methods and BPG’s
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Guarded hot plate apparatus, heat flow meter, pipe test, hot wire, hot boxes, water flow
calorimeter, calculation etc.
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Brief description of method, salient feature of apparatus, problem issues, uncertainty, pros
and cons i.e. all criteria to inform customer which will enable a choice to be made regarding
the most appropriate method for the material/application.
Standards
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Relevant ISO, CEN, ASTM and other documents such as ISO 8302, ISO 8301, ISO 8994
etc together with the European and ASTM equivalents.
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All cross-referenced to indexes of organisations.
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Also include brief discussion of any differences that exist and their impact.
Regulations
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Building code requirements documents.
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European and/or regulatory documents defining materials/properties requirements for
different applications, temperatures etc. requirements relating to conformance, accreditation
etc.
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Documentation relating to energy conservation, protection of the environment, health and
safety.
Organisations/Specialists
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International and national standards organisations including particular committees responsible for
insulation and particular materials such as ISO TC163, TC61 and TC45 – CEN TC88, 89, 125 etc,
ASHRAE TC 4.4 and 4.9, ASTM C16, D30, C.8 and corresponding European bodies.
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Eurima, European Plastics Group, SPI (USA) etc.
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C.I.B., RILEM, CIBSE etc.
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Industry members.
Measurement organisations
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National measurement institutes or equivalents
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Other government and non-industry bodies for example
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Universities, Frauenhofer Institutes, F.I.W., CSTB, IKE etc
Equipment Suppliers
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Various suppliers from USA, European countries and Japan (will include brief assessments of
applicability to insulation types and overall performance)
Books etc
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ASTM STP publications and monographs
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ASHRAE handbooks especially fundamentals
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Books: Tye, Cammerer, Missenard.
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Compendium Maglic et al
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Thermal Insulation Handbook – Turner and Malloy
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Critically evaluated list of papers
Properties Data Bases
Currently no comparable D/B’s to those available for solids and fluids.
This is due to a thermal insulation being a highly inhomogeneous product in which heat transmission
involves radiation, convection as well as conduction.
Thermal performance depends on a number of factors including density, heat flow direction, anisotropy,
environment, gas pressure, air movement, moisture content etc. Effects of each are material dependent. For a
number of materials equations are available to predict thermal properties within certain limits. These are
material specific and involve density, fibre diameter, airflow, cell size and shape, ageing etc.
Some data is available in publications in the form of “typical” or design values for limited numbers of
common materials used for:
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Building envelope and equipment
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Cryogenic and high temperature systems
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A few special applications
Publications include
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ASHRAE Book of Fundamentals
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Insulation handbook (UK) and similar national sources
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Product specifications
Suggested Activities
My recommendation is that the Evitherm data base include an introductory section which discusses and
explains these issues. This will cover the general concepts of typical behaviour, its change with density,
temperature, environment etc. It will address the concept of thermal resistance (now used in building regime)
and apparent thermal conductivity including “thickness” effect, provide generic equations for many products
and provide limits of effects of heat flow, direction, anisotropy, air movement, moisture etc.
Following this “generic” data bases can be prepared for different material types with typical values or range
of values (plus uncertainty limits), for glass and mineral fibre, cellular plastics, calcium silicates, refractory
oxide fibres and porous solids and micro porous materials etc. These data can be indexed to one or more of
the publications containing specific product data.
How to proceed
A team effort involving WG members provide information on the above issues by giving list of appropriate
national or other sources where known. Also provide names of colleagues and other individual contacts who
can be contacted to assist in providing information.
Suggested international specialists who could participate at meetings of group:
Helge Hoyer – Denmark
Jochen Fricke – Germany
Catherine Langlais – France
Carol Houghton – UK
Peter Wouters - Belgium