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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Form Stable Phase-Change Materials, Russell Dent, Marjan Kashfipour, Nitin Mehra, Jiahua Zhu Jan 2019

Form Stable Phase-Change Materials, Russell Dent, Marjan Kashfipour, Nitin Mehra, Jiahua Zhu

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This work investigates the use of two different polyols, xylitol (Xyl) and erythritol (Ery), in conjunction with boron nitride (BN) aerogels, for the purpose of creating thermally conductive composites. While the BN filler in Xyl composites achieved a high anisotropic thermal conductivity of up to 4.53 W/m-K at 18.2 weight percent filler loading, they do not exhibit good phase-change material qualities due to a low solidification enthalpy even at low cooling rates. Alternatively, the BN-Ery composites have shown promising results with a solidification enthalpy of 225.14 J/g and a melting enthalpy of 385.84 J/g at a heat rate of 5 …


Material Thermal Property Estimation Of Fibrous Insulation: Heat Transfer Modeling And The Continuous Genetic Algorithm, Elora Frye Jan 2018

Material Thermal Property Estimation Of Fibrous Insulation: Heat Transfer Modeling And The Continuous Genetic Algorithm, Elora Frye

Theses and Dissertations

Material thermal properties are highly sought after to better understand the performance of a material under particular conditions. As new materials are created, their physical properties will determine their performance for various applications. These properties have been estimated using many techniques including experimental testing, numerical modeling, and a combination of both. Existing methods can be time consuming, thus, a time-efficient and precise method to estimate these thermal properties was desired. A one-dimensional finite difference numerical model was developed to replicate the heat transfer through an experimental apparatus. A combination of this numerical model and the Continuous Genetic Algorithm optimization technique …


Finite Volume Numerical Analysis Of The Thermal Property Of Cellular Concrete Based On Two And Three Dimensional X-Ray Computerized Tomography Images, She Wei, Yang Yonggan, Xie Deqing, Zhang Yunsheng Jul 2014

Finite Volume Numerical Analysis Of The Thermal Property Of Cellular Concrete Based On Two And Three Dimensional X-Ray Computerized Tomography Images, She Wei, Yang Yonggan, Xie Deqing, Zhang Yunsheng

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Cellular concrete is one kind of lightweight concrete, which are widely used in thermal insulation engineering project. In this study, a three dimensional (2D and 3D) finite-volume-based models was developed for analyzing the heat transfer mechanisms through the porous structures of cellular concretes under steady-state heat transfer condition and also for investigating the differences between 2D and 3D modeling results. 2D and 3D reconstructed pore networks were generated from the microstructural information measured by a 3D image captured by X-ray computerized tomography (X-CT). In addition, the 3D-computed value of the effective thermal conductivity was found to be in better agreement …


Thermally Insulating Coating For Steel Drill Pipe, Matthew Mccaffrey Jun 2013

Thermally Insulating Coating For Steel Drill Pipe, Matthew Mccaffrey

Materials Engineering

A 5/16 in thick, 6 in x 6 in steel plate was used as a simple analog to 4 inch grade “S” steel drill pipe. Ethylene tetraflouroethylene (ETFE) applied as a powder coating was selected as the desired thermally insulating coating because of its excellent chemical resistance, maximum service temperature of 300°C, its thermal conductivity of 0.238 W/m-K, and for its ability to be applied in thicknesses of up to 80 mils. A powder primer coat of approximately 2 mils was applied using a conventional corona electrostatic powder sprayer, and then the high build topcoat was applied directly over the …