A Comparison of Accelerated Aging Test Protocols for Cellular Foam Insulation

Evaluation of Experimental Parameters in the Accelerated Aging of Closed-Cell Foam Insulation

“…(In practice, a simple trapezoidal integration of the thin slice data is adequate. [Stovall, et al, 2002]) With this method, it is necessary to measure the thermal conductivity of the thin slices for a period of time equivalent to the full desired service life, and a shorter test period is often preferred. In early research, the aging curve was approximated by a logarithmic relationship over two regions, early aging dominated by air diffusion, and later aging due to blowing agent diffusion, as shown in Eq.…”

“…An extensive interlaboratory comparison showed that the original CAN/ULC-S770 procedure produced biased results, and that the magnitude of the bias varied according to the material tested and the slice thickness. [Drouin, 2009;Stovall, et al, 2002] Spurred by these developments, and by the reluctance of the Federal Trade Commission to apply the more flexible ASTM C1303, efforts began in 2003 to produce a prescriptive version of that test method and to expand the scope to include products with permeable facers. During the revision process, questions were raised regarding the applicability of accelerated aged performance values derived from measurements on 50 mm (2-in.)…”