THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY EXPERIMENTS ON INSULATING PANELS

Abstract

The aim of the paper was to assess the insulating properties of four panels, two rock wool panels with different thicknesses (50 mm and 100 mm) and two cost-effective composite panels consisting in polystyrene, pressed cardboard casings and wool in different proportions. Pressed cardboard casings and wool are waste materials. The thermal conductivity was measured with the instrument HFM 436/6 Lambda in three variants of thermal regimes simulating different seasons of the year. The thermal conductivity of all panels is low. The rock wool panels have the lowest thermal conductivity regardless their thickness. The composite panels have higher thermal conductivity than the rock wool panel at the same thickness (100 mm). The thermal conductivity generally increases with the average temperature increase, while there is no rule of the thermal conductivity variation with the change in the temperature difference.