Introduction

Insulation is one of those ubiquitous techniques that is always around, always impinging on our work, social and domestic activities and yet for most of the time is hardly noticed. Insulation is a passive product, once installed it works efficiently, quietly and continually, usually out of sight enclosed within a structure.

Insulation comes to the fore when new design of buildings, plant, equipment or production processes is being considered. It is at this stage that the right specification must be made, any shortfall in the thickness, or error in the type and application details will prove costly to rectify at a later date.

There are many reasons why professional engineers, architects and indeed laymen use insulation:

• to comply with mandatory legislation i.e. Building Regulations or Standards;
• to reduce heat loss / heat gain;
• to reduce running costs;
• to control process temperatures;
• to control surface temperatures;
• to reduce the risk of freezing;
• to provide condensation control; or
• to reduce heating plant capacity.

General Principles of Thermal Insulation

General
All thermal insulation materials work on a single basic principle: heat moves from warmer to colder areas. Therefore, on cold days, heat from inside a building seeks to get outside. And on warmer days, the heat from outside the building seeks to get inside. Insulation is the material which slows this process. Rigid phenolic insulation materials have tiny pockets of trapped gas. These pockets resist the transfer of heat. They will not stop the loss or gain of heat completely.

Heat Transfer
Before dealing with the principles of insulation it is necessary to have an understanding of the mechanism of heat transfer. When a hot surface is surrounded by an area that is colder, heat will be transferred and the process will continue until both are at the same temperature. The heat transfer takes place by one or more of three methods:- conduction, convection and radiation.

Conduction
Conduction is the process by which heat flows by molecular transportation along or through a material or from one material to another, the material receiving the heat being in contact with that from which it comes. Conduction takes place in solids, liquids and gases and from one to another. The rate at which conduction occurs varies considerably according to the substance and its state. In solids, metals are good conductors with gold, silver and copper being amongst the best. The range continues downwards through minerals such as concrete and masonry, to wood, and then to the lowest conductors such as thermal insulating materials. Liquids are generally bad conductors but this is sometimes obscured by heat transfer taking place by convection. Gases (e.g. air) are even worse conductors than liquids but again they are prone to convection.

Convection
Convection occurs in liquids and gases. For any solid to lose or gain heat by convection it must be in contact with the fluid. Convection can not occur in a vacuum. Convection results from a change in density in parts of the fluid, the density change being brought about by a change in temperature. The process of convection that takes place solely through density change is known as ‘natural convection’. Where the displacement fluid is accelerated by wind or artificial means the process is called ‘forced convection’. With forced convection the rate of heat transfer is increased - substantially so in many cases.

Convection In Gases
If a hot body is surrounded by cooler air, heat is conducted to the air in immediate contact with the body. This air then becomes less dense than the colder air further away. The warmer lighter air is thus displaced upwards and is replaced by colder heavier air which in turn receives heat and is similarly displaced. A continuous flow of air or convection around the hot body removing heat from it is thus developed. This process is similar but reversed if warm air surrounds a colder body, the air becoming colder on transfer of the heat to the body, and the air becomes displaced downwards.

Convection In Liquids
Similar convection processes occur in liquids, though at a slower rate according to the viscosity of the liquid. It cannot be assumed however that convection in a liquid results in the colder component sinking and - the warmer rising. It depends on the liquid and the temperatures concerned. Water achieves its greatest density at approximately 4°C. Hence in a column of water, initially at 4°C, any part to which heat is applied will rise to the top but, alternatively, if any part is cooled below 4°C it too will rise to the top and the relatively warmer water sinks to the bottom. It is always the top of a pond or water in a storage vessel which freezes first.

Requirements Of An Insulant
In order to perform effectively as an insulant a material must restrict heat flow by any, and preferably, all three methods of heat transfer. Most insulants adequately reduce conduction and convection elements by the cellular structure of the material. The radiation component is reduced by absorption into the body of the insulant and is further reduced by the application of a bright foil outer facing to the product.

Radiation
The process by which heat is emitted from a body and transmitted across space as energy is called radiation. Heat radiation is a form of wave energy in space similar to radio and light waves. Radiation does not require any intermediate medium such as air for its transfer, it can readily take place across a vacuum. All bodies emit radiant energy, the rate of emission is governed by:

• the temperature difference between radiating and receiving surfaces;
• the distance between the surfaces; and
• the emissivity of the surfaces; dull matt surfaces are good emitters / receivers, bright reflective surfaces are poor.

Thermal insulation does not generate heat, it is a common misconception that thermal insulation automatically warms the building in which it is installed. If no heat is supplied to that building the building will remain cold. Any temperature rise that may occur will be as a result of better utilisation of internal fortuitous or incidental heat gains.

Convection Inhibition
To reduce heat transfer by convection an insulant should have a structure of a cellular nature or with a high void content. Small cells or voids inhibit convection within them and thus are less prone to excite or agitate neighbouring cells.

Conduction Inhibition
To reduce heat transfer by conduction an insulant should have a small ratio of solid volume to void. Additionally a thin wall matrix, a discontinuous a matrix or a matrix of elements with minimum point contacts are all beneficial at reducing conducted heat flow. A reduction in the conduction across the voids can be achieved by the use of inert gases rather than still air.

Radiation Inhibition
Radiation transfer is largely eliminated when an insulant is placed in close contact with a hot surface. Radiation may penetrate an open cell material but is rapidly absorbed within the immediate matrix and the energy changed to conductive or convective heat flow. Radiation is also inhibited by the use of bright aluminium foil either in the form of multi-corrugated sheets or as an outer facing on conventional insulants

Density Effects
Most materials achieve their insulating properties by virtue of the high void content of their structure. The voids inhibit convective heat transfer because of their small size. A reduction in void size reduces convection but does increase the volume of the material needed to form the closer matrix, this thus results in an increase in product density. Further increases in density continue to inhibit convective heat transfer but, ultimately the additional benefit is offset by the increasing conductive transfer through the matrix material and any further increase in density causes a deterioration in thermal conductivity. Most traditional insulants are manufactured in the low to medium density range and each particular product family will have its own specific relationship between conductivity and density.
One particular group of products, the insulating masonry group manufacture in the medium to high density range. They improve their thermal conductivity by reducing density.

Temperature Effects
Thermal conductivity increases with temperature. The insulating medium, the air or gas within the voids becomes more excited as its temperature is raised this excitement enhances convection within or between the voids and so increases heat flow.This increase in thermal conductivity is generally continuous for air filled products and can be mathematically modelled. Those insulants which employ 'inert gases' as their insulating medium may show sharp changes in thermal conductivity, these changes may occur because of gas condensation but this tends to be at sub zero temperatures.

Surface Emissivity
The effects of surface emissivity are exaggerated in high temperature applications, and particular attention should be paid to the selection of the type of surface of the insulation system. Low emissivity surfaces such as bright polished aluminium reduce heat loss by inhibiting the radiation of heat from the surface to the surrounding ambient space, however by holding back the heat being transmitted through the insulation a dam effect is created and the surface temperature rises. This temperature rise can be considerable, and if insulation is being used to achieve a specified temperature the use of a low emissivity system could well necessitate an increased thickness of insulation. For example a hot surface at 550°C insulated with a 50 mm product of thermal conductivity 0.055 and ambient temperature of 20°C would give a surface temperature of approximately 98°C, 78°C and 68°C when the outer surface is of low (polished aluminium), medium (galvanised steel) or high (plain or matt) emissivity respectively.

Glossary of Terms

Thermal Transmittance
Thermal transmittance (U-value) defines the ability of an element of structure, consisting of given thicknesses of material, air spaces etc. to transmit heat under steady state conditions. It is a measure of the quantity of heat that will flow through unit area in unit time, per unit difference of temperature of the individual environments between which the structure intervenes, being calculated as the reciprocal of the sum of the resistances of each component of the structure, including the resistance contributed by inner and outer surfaces and by any air spaces or cavities. Its units are W/m²K. When dealing with thermal insulation, the difference between common terms should be appreciated.

Surface Resistance
Surface resistance (R_s) is the reciprocal of surface coefficient. Its units are m²K/W.

Thermal Resistance
Since the primary purpose of thermal insulation is to frustrate the flow of heat, it is both appropriate and convenient to measure performance directly in terms of a material’s thermal resistance (R-value) which is obtained by dividing thickness in metres by thermal conductivity in W/mK, the result being expressed in m²K/W. Being additive, thermal resistances facilitate the computation of overall transmittance values (U-values).

Thermal Conductance
In contrast, thermal conductance (C) defines a material's ability to transmit heat measured in watts per square metre of surface area for a temperature gradient of one Kelvin in terms of a specific thickness expressed in metres. Its units are W/m²K. It is to be noted that, where a structure incorporates a number of component materials, airspaces etc. individual conductance values cannot be added directly for the purpose of calculating an overall rate of heat transfer without the necessity for first deriving reciprocal values.

Thermal Conductivity
Thermal conductivity (lambda value) defines a material's ability to transmit heat being measured in watts per square metre of surface area for a temperature gradient of one Kelvin (K) per unit thickness of one metre. W/mK.

Surface Coefficient
The surface coefficient (f) is the rate of heat transfer from a surface to the surrounding air (or fluid) due to conduction, convection and radiation. It is generally used only in still air conditions and when the temperature difference between surface and ambient is in the order of 30 K. It is obtained by dividing the thermal transmission per unit area in W/m² by the temperature difference between the surface and the surrounding air. Its units are W/m²K.

Temperature
For the purpose of ready identification, actual temperature levels are expressed in degrees Celsius (°C) whilst temperature difference (interval or gradient) is expressed in Kelvins (K).

Heat
The unit of quantity of heat is the joule (J). Heat flow may be expressed as joules per second (J/s), but as a heat flow of one Joule per second equals one Watt, the unit Watt (W) is adopted for practical purposes in calculating U-values.