Abstract:
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This chapter is dedicated to the study of heat transfer in polyolefin-based
foams, particularly thermal conductivity, as a function of their structure and
chemical composition. A small review of the main experimental techniques used
to measure the thermal conductivity of these materials is also given, focusing on the
transient plane source method (TPS), as well as different theoretical models commonly
used for estimating its value. Alongside cellular structure (cell size, anisotropy,
etc) and composition considerations, particular importance is given to the
analysis of the presence of micrometric and nanometric-sized fillers in the resulting
cellular composite thermal properties. This is a novel research field of particular
interest, thought to extend the application range of these lightweight materials by
tailoring their conductivity. |