9 - High performance thermal insulation materials for buildings

Abstract

Recent developments in high performance thermal insulators based on nanotechnology have enabled a strong drop in the effective thermal conductivity of insulation materials, down to 0.004–0.014W/(mK). The reductions are achieved using the Knudsen effect, which describes the effect of pore size distributions and partial gas pressure in materials on the gaseous heat transfer. The resulting thermal insulation materials have specific properties of importance for the building industry, which should be considered in each project. Further exploitation and a similar approach to solid conduction may result in the next-generation high performance thermal insulators.