Innovative Approaches to Sandwich Panel Insulation: Thermal and Moisture Behavior Assessment via ANSYS Fluent

Thermal insulation behavior of sandwich panels has always been of great interest to the researchers due to the high cost of energy and fossil fuels. The panels shall have good thermal insulation as well as good moisture insulation otherwise they will be a good growing condition for fungi, mold, mildew or other bacterial growth. The aim of this study is the identification of different panel’s cores thermal and moisture insulation behavior. Identification of these behaviors is of great importance in choosing the best insulation material in order to avoid energy waste and harmful living environment. In order to properly Simulate each panel, ANSYS Fluent software has been used for investigation and simulation of panel’s insulating capabilities. The geometry of sandwich panel structure was designed in SOLIDWORKS software and was imported to the ANSYS. This simulation has been performed in two parts; A) Thermal insulation behavior, B) Moisture insulation behavior. For this purpose, different material such as; Polyurethane (PU), expanded polystyrene (EPS), extruded polystyrene (XPS), unplasticized polyvinyl chloride (UPVC) and glass wool (GW) core sandwich panel have been considered and studied. Results show that the temperature difference in UPVC and GW panel is less than the others Compared respectively in panel’s thickness. Contour results also show that the highest temperature occurs in the middle point of the panel width. Numerical results of figures show that UPVC and GW insulation material Also, have the lowest middle temperature. As for the moisture insulation results, contours of H۲O mass fraction indicate that UPVC and GW panels absorb more water but the inner part of these panels which will be located inside the protected environment will remain dry. On the other hand, PU, EPS and XPS absorb less water but the whole panel can be drenched in water. This is due to the size of the grain of these panels.

کلیدواژه ها:

Numerical Study ، Thermal Insulation ، Moisture Insulation ، Sandwich Panels ، Different Foams