Production and Characterisation of Glass Foams for Thermal Insulation

Abstract

In this work, glass compositions from glass bottles with different colours and graphite (2 - 12 vol%) as the pore-forming agent were prepared for the production of materials with controlled porosity for applications where thermal and acoustic insulations are main technical requirements. The formulated compositions were, in a later stage, uniaxially pressed (40 MPa) and fired at different temperatures (800 - 950 °C) and cycles with holding times between 15 and 120 minutes. The results showed that it is possible to produce glass foams for thermal insulation from optimized compositions containing 90 vol% glass and 10 vol% graphite, fired between 800 and 950 °C for 30 minutes, which showed porosities between 53 and 76 %, with thermal conductivities between 0.16 and 0.08 W/mK and compressive strength between 20 and 4.6 MPa. The obtained glass foams are strong candidates for applications requiring thermal insulation with suitable combination of thermal conductivity, porosity and mechanical strength.