Determination of the temperature-dependent thermophysical properties of polymeric foams using numerical inverse analysis

• Published in: Construction & building materials 2023-08, Vol.394, p.131980, Article 131980
• Main Authors: Duarte, A.P.C., Mazzuca, P., Lopo de Carvalho, J.M., Tiago, C., Firmo, J.P., Correia, J.R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Effective specific heat capacity; Effective thermal conductivity; Elevated temperature and fire; Nonlinear thermal finite element analysis; Numerical inverse analysis; Polymeric foams
• ISSN: 0950-0618; 1879-0526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2023.131980

•A numerical inverse analysis procedure was developed in Matlab based on a FEM based functional.•Temperature-dependent thermophysical properties of polymeric foams were calibrated.•The calibrated properties can be used to model foam-core sandwich panels in fire.•The properties and procedure were validated by successfully modelling an independent case. Polymeric foams used as core materials of sandwich panels undergo severe degradation under high temperatures, making the experimental measurement of their thermophysical properties (thermal conductivity and specific heat) possible only up to 150 °C–200 °C. However, their knowledge at higher temperatures is needed to fully understand their behaviour and to develop advanced numerical models for analysis and design of sandwich structures subjected to fire. This work presents a numerical inverse analysis procedure to determine such effective properties for rigid polyurethane (PUR) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foams. Firstly, the campaign used to obtain experimental results is presented and then the proposed numerical inverse analysis procedure is described. This is based on the minimization of a least squares functional and a nonlinear finite element thermal analysis. Next, the numerical results and the effective thermophysical properties obtained for both foams are presented and discussed, and are validated by extending their use to the simulation of the thermal response of a sandwich panel subjected to a standard fire. It is concluded that the numerical procedure is capable of estimating the temperature-dependent effective thermal conductivity and specific heat of PUR and PET foams for temperatures well above those corresponding to their decomposition.