Numerical determination of the effective thermal conductivity of fibrous materials. Application to proton exchange membrane fuel cell gas diffusion layers

The knowledge of physical properties, such as the thermal conductivity, plays an important role in the management of the heat transfer in fibrous materials like PEFC gas diffusion layers. Measurement of thermal conductivity by experimental means is not easy (due to the anisotropy and the high porosity), therefore the availability of experimental data is rather limited. In this paper, the numerical determination of the effective thermal conductivity of fibrous materials is investigated using a three-dimensional approach. Two different fiber geometries were studied with randomly generated fiber structures with overlapping and non-overlapping fibers. The corresponding anisotropic thermal conductivities are computed through the solution of the energy transport equation. The results were validated through a comparison with existing experimental data and the influence of different parameters such as fiber orientation, fiber diameter and binding material were investigated.     

Analytic determination of the effective thermal conductivity of PEM fuel cell gas diffusion layers

Accurate information on the temperature field and associated heat transfer rates are particularly important in devising appropriate heat and water management strategies in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells. An important parameter in fuel cell performance analysis is the effective thermal conductivity of the gas diffusion layer (GDL). Estimation of the effective thermal conductivity is complicated because of the random nature of the GDL micro structure. In the present study, a compact analytical model for evaluating the effective thermal conductivity of fibrous GDLs is developed. The model accounts for conduction in both the solid fibrous matrix and in the gas phase; the spreading resistance associated with the contact area between overlapping fibers; gas rarefaction effects in microgaps; and salient geometric and mechanical features including fiber orientation and compressive forces due to cell/stack clamping. The model predictions are in good agreement with existing experimental data over a wide range of porosities. Parametric studies are performed using the proposed model to investigate the effect of bipolar plate pressure, aspect ratio, fiber diameter, fiber angle, and operating temperature.     

保温用天然生物质材料的热湿特性

实验分析一些廉价天然材料(椰壳和花生壳)的导热特性。利用同心球稳态测量方法测量确定椰壳和花生壳的导热系数,以及导热系数随温度的变化规律,同时以硅酸铝纤维材料为标准试样,与天然材料的导热性能进行对比分析。还对这些材料的低温吸湿作了初步测试,分析此类材料作为低温绝热材料的吸湿特性。研究结果表明,所有材料的导热系数均随温度的升高而增大,且增大速率都近似相等。影响天然生物质材料导热性质的因素主要有：纤维或多孔固体材料中的导热、孔隙中空气的对流换热,如果温度足够高的话,还有辐射换热。     

Radiative properties and heat transfer characteristics of fiber-loaded silica aerogel composites for thermal insulation

The radiative properties and heat transfer in fiber-loaded silica aerogel composites were investigated using modified anomalous diffraction theory in a combined heat conduction and radiation model. The randomly parameterized 2-D fiber distribution was generated to simulate a very realistic material structure. The finite volume method was then used to solve a two flux radiation model and the steady-state energy equation to calculate the effective thermal conductivity of the composite. The numerical results provide theoretic guidelines for material designs with optimum parameters, such as the inclination angle, diameter and length-to-diameter ratio of the fibers. The results show that the fiber extinction coefficient increases as the fiber length-to-diameter ratio is reduced or the fiber inclination angle is increased. The effective thermal conductivity of the fiber-loaded aerogel can be reduced by reducing the fiber length-to-diameter ratio and the inclination angle and by moderately increasing the fiber volume fraction. The 4–6 μm diameter silicon fibers are optimum for high-temperature thermal insulation.     

Numerical simulation of the effective thermal conductivity of wet clothing materials

Clothing materials may be considered composite materials composed of fiber, air, and moisture. For this paper, effective thermal conductivities of wet clothing materials were analyzed numerically using a proposed heat transfer model. The following simplifications were introduced. The clothing material fiber is woven with a single yarn, there is no air movement between fibers, and mass transfer is neglected. Numerical calculations were made using finite difference equations for steady three-dimensional heat conduction for several composite materials representing wet clothing materials. The main results obtained were as follows. The effective thermal conductivity of wet clothing material increases as the thermal conductivity of the yarn and the moisture content increase. We found that our numerical results agree qualitatively with those previously measured. The effective thermal conductivity of a wet layered material depends on the distribution of moisture and attains a maximum in the wet layer. © 1998 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Jpn Res, 27(3): 243–254, 1998     

Numerical prediction of effective thermal conductivity of ceramic fiber board using lattice Boltzmann method

Abstract

Application of the lattice Boltzmann method has been extended for the analysis of combined transient conduction and radiation heat transfer through highly porous fibrous insulation media. Firstly, LBM has been employed for the analysis of combined mode of transient conduction radiation heat transfer in a 2?D rectangular enclosure containing an absorbing, emitting and scattering medium and results are compared with already published ones. The results have been found in good accord for different values of radiation-conduction parameter, scattering albedo and south (hot) wall emissivity. Furthermore, the proposed LBM for the calculation of effective thermal conductivity of ceramic fiber board has been employed. A random-generation growth method for generating micro morphology of natural ceramic fiber board has been selected. The conductive, radiative and effective thermal conductivity has been numerically estimated using the present LBM. It is found that the predicted effective thermal conductivity for different values of fibrous bulk density is in good agreement with the experimental data.     

Heat transfer through fibrous assemblies incorporating reflective interlayers

Fibrous insulation has many applications including functional protective clothing, sleeping bags, buildings and construction, and aircrafts, particularly under extreme climatic conditions. It has been realized that reflective interlayers can be incorporated into the fibrous materials to block radiative heat transfer. However, since reflective interlayers generally have greater thermal conductivity than the bulk fibrous materials, the optimization of the construction of the fibrous insulation is important in maximizing the overall thermal insulation. In order to analyze this complex optimization problem, a two-flux radiative heat transfer model was built for the heat transfer through fibrous assemblies incorporating reflective interlayers. By using finite control volume method, the solution was obtained. After validation it was applied to predict the optimum constructional parameters of such an assembly for maximizing thermal insulation. It was found that (1) although extinction coefficient of Al-coated interlayer fibers decrease unidirectionally as the fiber diameter increases, the total heat flux first decreases and then increases with minimum heat flux at the fiber diameter of about 2 μm; Consequently, the thermal resistance reaches a maximum value when the fiber diameter d is about 2 μm; (2) the optimum construction is determined by the balance of the weakening of conductive thermal resistance and enhancement of the radiative thermal resistance as a result of incorporating thin reflective interlayers. For relatively thick reflective interlayer, the assembly with lower interlayer fiber volume fraction has a higher thermal resistance. On the other hand, for very thin reflective interlayers, relatively high fiber volume fraction is beneficial to the overall thermal insulation.     

Influence of chitosan and porosity on heat and mass transfer in chitosan-treated porous fibrous material

This paper focuses on a theoretical investigation of the coupling mechanism of heat transfer and liquid moisture diffusion in chitosan-treated porous fibrous material. The porous fibrous materials made of cotton with different porosities are modified by chitosan solution with different concentrations. The moisture regain of the chitosan-treated porous fibrous material increases and the contact angle of the chitosan-treated fiber decreases significantly after modification. For comparison, the simultaneous heat and liquid moisture transfer in porous fibrous materials with different porosities modified by chitosan solution with different concentration are discussed. With specification of initial and boundary conditions, the distributions of the water vapor concentration in the void spaces, the volume fraction of the liquid water in the void spaces, the distribution of the water content in fibers and the temperature changes in chitosan-treated porous fibrous material are obtained numerically. The comparison with the experimental measurements shows the superiority of the numerical model in resolving the coupled heat and mass transfer in chitosan-treated porous fibrous material. Analysis of the computational and experimental results illustrates that the heat and mass transfer in chitosan-treated porous fibrous material is influenced by chitosan concentration and fabric porosity significantly.     

Modeling and prediction of the effective thermal conductivity of random open-cell porous foams

Although highly desirable, accurate prediction of the effective thermal conductivity of high-porosity open-cell porous foam materials has remained to be a challenging problem. Aiming at this thorny obstacle, we have developed a random generation-growth method to reproduce the microstructures of open-cell foam materials via computer modeling, and then solve the energy transport equations through the complex structure by using a high-efficiency lattice Boltzmann method in this contribution. The effective thermal conductivities of open-cell foam materials are thus numerically calculated and the predictions are compared with the existing experimental data. Since the porosity is high, the predicted thermal conductivity caused by thermal conduction is lower than the measured data when the thermal conductivity of either component is very low and the radiation heat transfer is non-negligible. After considering the radiation effect, the numerical predictions agree rather well with the experimental data. The radiation influence is diminishing as the material porosity decreases. In general the effective thermal conductivity of open-cell foam materials is much higher than that of granular materials of the same components due to the enhanced heat transfer by the inner netlike morphology of the foam materials.     

Macroscopic thermal properties of real fibrous materials: Volume averaging method and 3D image analysis

A general method combining the volume averaging technique and image analysis is proposed to determine the effective thermal conductivity tensor of real fibrous materials featuring local anisotropic thermal properties. The application of mathematical morphology tools on 3D images of wood based fibrous insulators allows a thorough investigation of the microstructure of these materials. A representative elementary volume is determined and the geometrical structure and local anisotropy are studied and quantified. The classical closure problem coming from the one equation model is solved on the 3D thermal conductivity tensor field and the effective thermal conductivity is computed. Good agreement with available experimental data is achieved.     

Thermal Buckling of Piezolaminated Plates Subjected to Different Loading Conditions

A thermal buckling analysis is presented for simply supported rectangular laminated composite plates that are covered with top and bottom piezoelectric actuators, and subjected to the combined action of thermal load and constant applied actuator voltage. The thermomechanical properties of composite and piezoelectric materials are assumed to be linear functions of the temperature. The formulations of the equations are based on the higher-order laminated plate theory of Reddy and using the Sanders nonlinear kinematic relations. The closed-form solutions for the buckling temperature are obtained through the Galerkin procedure and solving the resultant eigenvalue problem, which are convenient to be used in engineering design applications. Numerical examples are presented to verify the proposed method. The effects of the plate geometry, fiber orientation in composite layers, lay-up configuration, different utilized piezoelectric materials, temperature dependency of material properties, thermal conductivity, and energy generation on the buckling load are investigated.     

Insulation System Using High-Temperature Fibrous Insulation Materials

ABSTRACT

In this study, we performed a preliminary research on an insulated sandwich structure using high-temperature fibrous insulation materials. Two types of fibrous materials, Saffil alumina and KCC cerakwool insulation materials, were selected. A sandwich specimen was invented to test the heat-shielding performance of the fibrous materials which were sandwiched by an Inconel plate and a titanium plate. The insulated sandwich structure was heated to 800°C for 2,000 seconds. The temperature profiles of the back side of the titanium plate were measured to compare the heat-shielding performance of the fibrous insulation materials. The microstructure of insulation materials, such as the fiber diameter, fiber orientation, and the parent materials of the fiber, was studied to understand how those characteristics influence the radiative properties of the fiber. The difference in microstructural parameters caused a difference in thermal resistance in the fibrous materials. The Saffil alumina insulation had a better performance than KCC cerakwool insulation because of its small fiber diameter and in-plane fiber orientation. The experimental results confirmed the heat transfer simulation results for fibrous materials done by other researchers. In addition, the reusability of high-temperature fibrous insulation, one of the important issues in real applications, was tested.     

Anisotropic thermal conductivity and permeability of compacted expanded natural graphite

The anisotropic thermal conductivities and permeabilities are investigated for discs and plates of compacted expanded natural graphite. The measuring directions of heat conductivity and permeability are both parallel and perpendicular to the pressing direction of compacted samples. An unexpected phenomenon is found in that the thermal conductivity sometimes decreases as the density of the material increases, and this phenomenon only occurs for thermal conduction parallel to the compressing direction. The results also indicate that the direction perpendicular to the compression direction shows higher thermal conductive properties and permeability values. Both anisotropic thermal conductivities and permeabilities are strongly dependent on density. Analysis shows that as a type of porous material, the ENG yields layers under the effect of pressure, and their orientation influences the values of heat conductivity and permeability of the different samples.     

直埋闭式地源热泵回填土性能研究

回填土的性能对直埋式地源热泵的设计有一定的影响．对直埋闭式地源热泵用回填土的性能参数中的密度、含水率、饱和度以及导热系数进行了数学定义，并指出影响导热系数的主要因素是密度和含水率。用平板探针原理的室内试验的方法研究了各种物质组成情况、时间以及不同温度对导热系数的影响，并对试验的结果进行了详细的分析，得出了随各种影响因素而变化的曲线。试验结果表明，膨润土不适合单独用于回填材料，需与水泥配合并推荐使用非饱和态。导热系数随水灰比的减小而增加。掺人大颗粒的骨料是提高导热系数的有效途径，砂含量的增加使导热系数往往呈线性增长。当水灰比为0．45且砂的置换率为80％时回填材料具有较满意的导热性能，值得推荐使用。     

Effective thermal conductivity of insulation materials for cryogenic LH2 storage tanks: A review

An accurate estimation of the effective thermal conductivity of various insulation materials is essential in the evaluation of heat leak and boil-off rate from liquid hydrogen storage tanks. In this work, we review the existing experimental data and various proposed correlations for predicting the effective conductivity of insulation systems consisting of powders, foams, fibrous materials, and multilayer systems. We also propose a first principles-based correlation that may be used to estimate the dependence of the effective conductivity as a function of temperature, interstitial gas composition, pressure, and structural properties of the material. We validate the proposed correlation using available experimental data for some common insulation materials. Further improvements and testing of the proposed correlation using laboratory scale data obtained using potential LH₂ tank insulation materials are also discussed.     

基于热辨识技术的硅基防热材料高温热导率测量

硅基防热材料是高超声速飞行器防热系统用重要材料之一,但由于硅基防热材料在高温条件下存在着复杂的物理化学变化,使得高温热导率的获取变得困难,这已成为飞行器防热系统精细化设计的主要制约瓶颈。基于热导率辨识方法,设计了一种能够实现硅基防热材料高温热导率测量的试验测量装置,对硅基防热材料在常温~800℃热导率进行了测量,并将测得的热导率外推应用到其他试验状态。结果表明,测得的硅基防热材料高温热导率合理可靠,具有很高的工程精度。该试验测量装置可实现不同温度下热导率的同步测量,测量成本低,效率高,这对其他防热材料的高温热导率测量具有重要的参考价值。     

Measurements of thermal properties of insulation materials by using transient plane source technique

The paper reports on the measuring technique and values of the measured thermal properties of some commonly used insulation materials produced by local manufacturers in Saudi Arabia. Among the thermal properties of insulation materials, the thermal conductivity (k) is regarded to be the most important since it affects directly the resistance to transmission of heat (R-value) that the insulation material must offer. Other thermal properties, like the specific heat capacity (c) and density (ρ), are also important only under transient conditions. A well-suited and accurate method for measuring the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of materials is the transient plane source (TPS) technique, which is also called the hot disk (HD). This new technique is used in the present study to measure the thermal conductivity of some insulation materials at room temperature as well as at different elevated temperature levels expected to be reached in practice when these insulations are used in air-conditioned buildings in hot climates. Besides, thermal conductivity values of the same type of insulation material are measured for samples with different densities; generally, higher density insulations are used in building roofs than in walls. The results show that the thermal conductivity increases with increasing temperature and decreases with increasing density over the temperature and density ranges considered in the present investigation.     

Analytical Monte Carlo Ray Tracing simulation of radiative heat transfer through bimodal fibrous insulations with translucent fibers

In this study, a Monte Carlo Ray Tracing (MCRT) simulation technique is developed to study steady-state radiative heat transfer through fibrous insulation materials. The simulations are conducted in 3-D disordered virtual fibrous media with unimodal and/or bimodal fiber diameter distributions consisting of fibers whose surfaces are specularly reflective, and are translucent to Infrared (IR) radiation. Scattering within the realm of geometric optics is incorporated into our MCRT simulations using Snell’s Law for ray refraction. Fibers’ optical properties are obtained from Fresnel’s law and Beer’s law based on the refractive index of the material. Two different treatments of “high” and “low” conductivities are considered for the fibers and their effects are discussed. Our results indicate that heat flux through a fibrous medium with translucent fibers decreases with increasing packing fraction of the fibers. It was observed that IR transmittance through the media increases with increasing through-plane orientation of the fibers, but is independent of their in-plane orientations. It was also found that fiber orientation has generally a negligible effect on the temperature profile across the media’s thickness. However, for the case of high-conductivity fibers, increasing fibers’ through-plane orientation tends to flatten the temperature profile. The results obtained from simulating bimodal fibrous structures indicate that increasing the fiber-diameter dissimilarity, or the mass fraction of the coarse fibers, slightly increases the radiation transmittance through the media, and accordingly reduces the temperature gradient across the thickness. Our simulation results are compared with those from the two-flux model and good agreement is observed.     

Thermal conductivity enhancement of carbon fiber composites

The effective thermal conductivity enhancement of carbon fiber composites is investigated in this contribution using a three-dimensional numerical method. First a more realistic three-dimensional distribution of fibers dispersed in a matrix phase is reproduced by a developed random generation-growth method to eliminate the overrated inter-fiber contacts by the two-dimensional simulations. The energy transport governing equations are then solved through the three-dimensional structures using a high-efficiency lattice Boltzmann scheme. The resultant predictions agree well with the available experimental data. Compared with the existing theoretical models, the present method does not depend upon empirical parameters which have to be determined case by case, so that it is useful for design and optimization for new materials, beyond prediction and analysis just for existing composites.     

含二氧化硅气凝胶和相变材料三层玻璃窗热性能分析

为了研究含二氧化硅气凝胶和相变材料三层玻璃窗对严寒地区建筑能耗的影响,建立了相变材料层与其他透明壁层结合发生的传热数值模型。分析了含二氧化硅气凝胶和相变材料三层玻璃窗在不同二氧化硅气凝胶厚度、导热系数和不同保温材料下的动态热调节性能,得到了含二氧化硅气凝胶和相变材料三层玻璃窗内表面热流密度和液相率随时间的变化规律。结果表明:随着二氧化硅气凝胶厚度增加,总传热量降低和液相率增加,当二氧化硅气凝胶厚度为20～30 mm时,可以实现有效的利用太阳能;随着二氧化硅气凝胶导热系数增加,总传热量升高和液相率降低;当二氧化硅气凝胶的导热系数从0.022降低到0.014 W/(m·K)时,最大液相率从0.83增加到1.00。二氧化硅作为保温层比相变材料作为保温层具有更好的保温隔热作用。