Structural material

Engineering

Petrochemical

Materials science

Thermal conductivity

Polymer

Waste management

Physics

Renewable resource

Renewable energy

Thermal

Isocyanate

Composite material

Polyurethane

Meteorology

Stiffness

Compressive strength

Electrical engineering

Construction and Building Materials

Sustainable development of building industry implies increasing usage of green materials. With this aim and for the intended application as a structural thermal break material, rigid high-density polyurethane foams have been manufactured using polyols derived from renewable resources - tall oil fatty acids. Thermal conductivity, compressive strength and stiffness of the foams of density ranging from ca. 100 to 680 kg/m3 have been determined. Comparison of the bio-based foams with reference foams derived from petrochemical resources demonstrated similar performance characteristics thus suggesting that bio-based foams can also serve as structural thermal break materials. Analytical models are shown to enable estimation of density dependence of the thermal and mechanical properties of foams using the respective experimentally determined characteristics of the monolithic polyurethane polymer.

Bio-based rigid high-density polyurethane foams as a structural thermal break material