Isolating Modal Contributions to Thermal Conductivity in Porous Insulation Materials

Isolating Modal Contributions to Thermal Conductivity in Porous Insulation Materials Christopher T. Barrow, John F. Maddox (PI) Department of Mechanical Engineering University of Kentucky Abstract The proposed research activity will be the development of an experimental method and facility for isolating the contributions of solid conduction, gas conduction, and radiation to the e?ective thermal conductivity of porous insulation materials used in thermal protection systems (TPS) for re-entry vehicles. A comparative cut-bar apparatus capable of measuring the thermal resistance of ?exible porous insulation materials under mechanical loading has been previously developed. This system will be modi?ed to accomodate a wider range of experimental temperatures. This capability will enable the isolation of radiative heat transfer from conductive heat transfer through the material, thus allowing the contribution of each of these three heat transfer paths to be characterized independently. 1