Thermal insulation property and service life of vacuum insulation panels with glass fiber chopped strand as core materials

• The inner pressure increase of VIPs is investigated by calculation and experiment.
• The service life model is proposed based on Arrhenius law.
• Service life >20 yrs could be achieved by adding adsorbent for building application.
• A novel low cost composite adsorbent is investigated.

Thermal insulation performance and service life of vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) dramatically depend on the internal pressure of VIPs. To analyze internal pressure increase of VIPs, VIPs in various geometric sizes are manufactured from threefold metalized polymer laminate barrier envelopes and glass fiber chopped strand core materials. The gas permeation contribution to the internal gas pressure of VIPs through envelope surface area and perimeter are investigated based on theoretical calculation and experiments. The trend of calculated pressure increasing rate is consistent with experimental results. The gas permeation through barrier laminate surface area is measured by a helium leak detector while the thermal conductivity of VIPs is measured by thermal conductivity meter. The accelerated aging experiments are carried out at different temperatures and service life model is proposed based on Arrhenius law. A low cost composite adsorbent is investigated, absorption property of which for water vapor is measured at various relative humidity. As a result, it is recommended to use large square VIPs with thickness of 1.0–2.5 cm. Service life of 10–15 years or above 20 years can be achieved by adding different adsorbents for different application fields.