Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Thermal Insulation Property of Melt Blown Materials

Melt blown material has outstanding thermal insulation performance among various fibrous materials due to the fact that it has more specific surface area, small pore and high porosity. Understanding the factors that influence the rate of thermal transfer through a melt blown material is important for the design and development of thermal insulation materials. A model considering the heat conduction and irradiation was built, in which the fibrous materials were treated as homogeneous object. Three specimens with different porosities and fiber diameter were fabricated with a laboratory-scale melt blowing machine to evaluate the predictability of the model. With different given conditions, the influences of fiber diameter and fiber mat porosity on the thermal insulation properties of the melt blown fiber mat were investigated numerically.