Comparison of Steady-state and In-situ Testing of High Thermal Resistance Walls Incorporating Vacuum Insulation Panels. (November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Baldwin, Christopher; Cruickshank, Cynthia A.; Schiedel, Matthew; Conley, Brock
• Is Part Of: Energy procedia. Volume 78(2015)
• Page Start: 3246
• Page End: 3251
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Subjects: Vacuum Insulation Panels -- Experimental Evaluation -- Guard Hot Box -- In-Situ Testing -- High Thermal Resistant Wall Design; Power resources -- Congresses; Power resources -- Periodicals; Power resources; Conference proceedings; Periodicals; 333.7905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2015.11.690
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1876-6102

Abstract

Abstract: Two standard test methods exist to experimentally determine the effective thermal resistance of a wall: in-situ testing to calibrate a computer simulation and steady-state testing in a guarded hot box. This paper compares results obtained using both methods on a wall assembly incorporating vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) with an experimentally determined effective R-Value of 8.21 m 2 K/W using a guarded hot box. The result using a guarded hot box was lower than that using in-situ measurements paired with computer simulation as a result of the more accurate representation of thermal bridging between VIP panels using this test method. When testing in a guarded hot box, all thermal bridges, including between panels is accounted for. By comparison, an experimentally obtained thermal resistance measured at the center of a VIP panel and assumed as a constant thermal resistance across the complete VIP layer in the computer model does not account for the non-homogenous nature of a VIP layer. As a result, it was concluded that wall assemblies that contain numerous small thermal bridges like those incorporating VIP panels should be experimentally evaluated using a guarded box.