Investigations into the thermal performance of multilayer insulation (300-77 K) Part 2: Thermal analysis

Simple analytical methods have been employed for heat transfer analysis of experimental data obtained through calorimetric investigations on multilayer insulation (MLI). Sectional heat transfer analysis has shown that the effective thermal conductivity of the MLI varies from section to section of the insulation structure and it has a peak which lies between the middle and warm boundary regions of the MLI. This could be attributed to a peak in residual gas conduction in this region. The theoretical estimation of heat flux through MLI, using a simple analytical model, is also discussed in this paper. This model takes into consideration the non-linear temperature profile of the insulation. The computed heat flux using this model gives a lower (2 to 4 times) value in comparison with the heat flux estimated from calorimetric measurements. A refined model has been suggested which includes the residual gas conduction also in MLI.