THERMAL SCIENCE
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STUDY ON MEASUREMENT AND PREDICTION METHODS OF NONLINEAR THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE RESISTANT POROUS INSULATION
ABSTRACT
High temperature insulation materials are critical components of thermal protection systems for hypersonic vehicles, gas turbines, and other advanced technologies. In these contexts, the assessment of thermal insulation performance through the measurement of thermal conductivity is essential. This study measures the effective thermal conductivity of high dimensional S blanket, aluminum silicate cotton needle felt, and nanoaerogel blanket insulation fibers using the heat flux meter method under two environmental conditions: dry and 60% relative humidity. The experiments covered hot surface temperatures ranging from 50-550°C, encompassing 90 distinct operational conditions. The results elucidate the variation patterns of both the effective and true thermal conductivity of these materials. The findings indicate that: fitting models for the effective thermal conductivity of the high dimensional S blanket, aluminum silicate cotton needle felt, and nanoaerogel blanket provided accurate predictions. Humidity significantly affected both the effective and true thermal conductivity at high temperatures for the high dimensional S blanket and aluminum silicate cotton needle felt, but had a relatively minor impact on the nanoaerogel blanket. Incorporating true thermal conductivity allowed for accurate predictions of material performance in 42 experimental conditions, with strong agreement between calculated values and experimental data.
KEYWORDS
Effective thermal conductivity True thermal conductivity Heat flow meter method Least squares fitting, thermal insulation materials
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2024-11-18
PAPER REVISED: 2025-03-02
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2025-03-25
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2025-05-10
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI241118082A
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© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence


