3D X-rays application for precision measurement of the cell structure of extruded polystyrene

While the thermal performance of existing insulation materials have been determined by blister gases, the thermal performance of future insulation materials will be dependent on the cell size and independent foam content as we use eco-friendly blister gases with a higher thermal conductivity. However, with the current technology we are only able to guess the whole cell size and independent foam content through SEM applied 2D fragmentary scanning but are still far from the level of accurate cell structure data extraction. Under this situation, we utilized X-ray CT scanned 3D images to identify and shape the cell structure and proposed a method of inferring the whole distribution and independent foam content as accurately as possible. According to X-ray CT scanning images and SEM images, the shape was similar but according to tracer applied CT scanning images, the cell size distribution was 380 similar to 400 mu m within the range of the general insulation diameter distribution which had the highest reliability. As for extrusion foaming polystyrene, we need additional image processing to identify the independent foam content as its density is too low. So, it is recommended to raise the 3D cell structure completeness of XPS by improving the scanning accuracy.