Among the variety of products for thermal insulation in industry the aerogel blankets have received significant attention because of their unique properties and wide range of applications. This paper presents the basic properties, fields of application and results of experimental study of Pyrogel XT, which is a type of high temperature aerogel blanket. It is formed of silica aerogel and reinforced with glass fiber batting. In comparison with traditional insulating materials Pyrogel XT is much more efficient thermal insulation with wide temperature range of application (-40÷650ºC). It also has the lowest thermal conductivity of any known solid material. Experimental investigation of thermophysical properties of Pyrogel XT was carried out by using traditional and modern research methods. The traditional method utilized a simplified single-plate Poensgen apparatus. The modern approach was performed on a Unitherm TM model 2022 thermal conductivity instrument which uses a guarded heat flow meter method according to ASTM E1530 standard. Results obtained from both devices were compared and analyzed.

This paper presents the results of experimental investigation of thermophysical properties of material manufactured with 3D printing technology with the use of fused deposition modelling (FDM) method. Cylindrically shaped samples with a diameter of 50.8 mm and with various fill density (from 10 to 100%) were prepared. The investigated material was PLA (polylactic acid, polylactide). The investigation was carried out in order to determine the density, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and specific heat of tested material. The main aim of this paper was to determine the influence of fill density on thermal conductivity. The results can be useful in designing thermal insulation manufactured with rapid prototyping methods, operating in relative low temperature conditions (< 100°C).

This paper presents the comparable analysis of the investigation of energetic properties of two types of biomass. The research was made on the manual and semi-automatic oxygen-bomb calorimeter KL-12Mn. The basic energetic properties include calorific value and heating value. Calculations were made according to the PN-ISO 1928 standard. The research was made for basket willow and paulownia tomentosa samples. To determine the average value of each parameter samples of each kind of biomass were researched three times on both devices, which increased the accuracy of methods. The paper also includes the uncertainty analysis.