Thermal performance of sprayed polyurethane foam insulation with alternative blowing agents

摘要

NA test methodology that uses thermal resistance-time curves determined on thin slices of the foam and the scaling technique to relate aging time to the specimen thickness, was applied to evaluate long-term thermal performance of six polyurethane foams manufactured with the same polymer but different blowing agents. The blowing agents employed were: CFC-11 with 0, 0.5, 1.0 or 1.5% water and HCFC-123 or HCFC-14 lb. Except for foams manufactured with CFC-11 and 1.0% or 1.5% of water, for which material inhomogeneity was higher than can be tolerated by the proposed test methodology, polyurethane foams manufactured with CFC-11 and 0.5% water, HCFC-123 and HCFC-14 lb showed long-term thermal performance similar to that of CFC-11 blown materials.