VA-89-08-1 -- Literature Review of Measurement and Predictions of Reflective Building Insulation System Performance: 1900-1989 PDF

reflective insulation products that are installed in con, fined airspaces of building wails, floors, ceilings, and roofs. It excludes radiant barriers, which are normally instaffed in nonconfined attic airspaces, where there may also be external convective flows created by attic ventilation schemes. The exhaustive ffterature survey goes back almost 100 years and looks in detail into reflective insula, tion system literature from the 1920s to the present. Included in the review is the ffterature pertinent to free canvection in confined airspaces and the effects of aging (dust collection, moisture, condensation, and corrosion) on the thermal performance of reflective insulation products.

The literature review shows that the important parameters for predicting the thermal performance are the mean temperature, temperature difference, aspect ratio (height to width ratio), geometry and orientations, and surface emissivities of the airspace(s). The paper concludes with recommendations on areas ofneeded research and product development.