As was written, thermal insulation is based on the use of substances with very low thermal conductivity. These materials are known as insulation materials. Common insulation materials are wool, fiberglass, rock wool, polystyrene, polyurethane, goose feather, etc. Therefore, these materials are very poor conductors of heat and are good thermal insulators.
Types of Insulation – Categorization of Insulation Materials
For insulation materials, three general categories can be defined. These categories are based on the chemical composition of the base material from which the insulating material is produced.
In further reading, there is a brief description of these types of insulation materials.
Organic Insulation Materials
The organic insulation materials treated in this section are all derived from a petrochemical or renewable feedstock (bio-based). Almost all of the petrochemical insulation materials are in the form of polymers. As can be seen from the figure, all petrochemical insulation materials are cellular. A material is cellular when the material’s structure consists of pores or cells. On the other hand, many plants contain fibers for their strength. Therefore almost all the bio-based insulation materials are fibrous (except expanded cork, which is cellular).
Organic insulation materials can be classified accordingly:
- Petrochemical materials (oil/coal-derived)
- Renewable materials (plant/animal-derived)
- Cellulose
- Cork
- Woodfibre
- Hemp fibre
- Flax wool
- Sheeps wool
- Cotton insulation
Other Insulation Materials
Example of Insulation – Polystyrene
Generally, polystyrene is a synthetic aromatic polymer made from the monomer styrene, derived from benzene and ethylene, both petroleum products. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. Polystyrene is a colorless, transparent thermoplastic that is commonly used to make foam board or beadboard insulation and a type of loose-fill insulation consisting of small beads of polystyrene. Polystyrene foams are 95-98% air. Polystyrene foams are good thermal insulators and are often used as building insulation materials, such as insulating concrete forms and structural insulated panel building systems. Expanded (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS) are both made from polystyrene. Still, EPS is composed of small plastic beads fused, and XPS begins as a molten material pressed out of a form into sheets. XPS is most commonly used as foam board insulation.
Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a rigid and tough, closed-cell foam. Building and construction applications account for around two-thirds of the demand for expanded polystyrene, and it is used for insulation (cavity) on walls, roofs, and concrete floors. Due to its technical properties such as low weight, rigidity, and formability, expanded polystyrene can be used in a wide range of applications, for example, trays, plates, and fish boxes.
Although both expanded and extruded polystyrene have a closed-cell structure, they are permeable by water molecules and can not be considered a vapor barrier. There are interstitial gaps between the expanded closed-cell pellets. In expanded polystyrene forms an open network of channels between the bonded pellets. If the water freezes into ice, it expands and can cause polystyrene pellets to break off from the foam.
