# Database of insulating and refractory material properties (ht.insulation)¶

ht.insulation.ASHRAE_k(ID)[source]

Returns thermal conductivity of a building or insulating material from a table in [1]. Thermal conductivity is independent of temperature here. Many entries in the table are listed for varying densities, but the appropriate ID from the table must be selected to account for that.

Parameters
IDstr

ID corresponding to a material in the dictionary ASHRAE

Returns
kfloat

Thermal conductivity of the material, [W/m/K]

References

1

ASHRAE Handbook: Fundamentals. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Incorporated, 2013.

Examples

>>> ASHRAE_k(ID='Mineral fiber')
0.036

ht.insulation.Cp_material(ID, T=298.15)[source]

Returns heat capacity of a building, insulating, or refractory material from tables in [1], [2], and [3]. Heat capacity may or may not be dependent on temperature depending on the source used. Function must be provided with either a key to one of the dictionaries refractories, ASHRAE, or building_materials - or a search term which will pick the closest match based on a fuzzy search. To determine which source the fuzzy search will pick, use the function nearest_material. Fuzzy searches are slow; it is preferable to call this function with a material key directly.

Parameters
IDstr

String as described above

Tfloat, optional

Temperature of the material, [K]

Returns
Cpfloat

Heat capacity of the material, [W/m/K]

References

1

ASHRAE Handbook: Fundamentals. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Incorporated, 2013.

2

DIN EN 12524 (2000-07) Building Materials and Products Hygrothermal Properties - Tabulated Design Values; English Version of DIN EN 12524.

3

Gesellschaft, V. D. I., ed. VDI Heat Atlas. 2nd edition. Berlin; New York:: Springer, 2010.

Examples

>>> Cp_material('Mineral fiber')
840.0

ht.insulation.k_material(ID, T=298.15)[source]

Returns thermal conductivity of a building, insulating, or refractory material from tables in [1], [2], and [3]. Thermal conductivity may or may not be dependent on temperature depending on the source used. Function must be provided with either a key to one of the dictionaries refractories, ASHRAE, or building_materials - or a search term which will pick the closest match based on a fuzzy search. To determine which source the fuzzy search will pick, use the function nearest_material. Fuzzy searches are slow; it is preferable to call this function with a material key directly.

Parameters
IDstr

String as described above

Tfloat, optional

Temperature of the material, [K]

Returns
kfloat

Thermal conductivity of the material, [W/m/K]

References

1

ASHRAE Handbook: Fundamentals. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Incorporated, 2013.

2

DIN EN 12524 (2000-07) Building Materials and Products Hygrothermal Properties - Tabulated Design Values; English Version of DIN EN 12524.

3

Gesellschaft, V. D. I., ed. VDI Heat Atlas. 2nd edition. Berlin; New York:: Springer, 2010.

Examples

>>> k_material('Mineral fiber')
0.036

ht.insulation.nearest_material(name, complete=False)[source]

Returns the nearest hit to a given name from from dictionaries of building, insulating, or refractory material from tables in [1], [2], and [3]. Function will pick the closest match based on a fuzzy search. if complete is True, will only return hits with all three of density, heat capacity, and thermal conductivity available.

Parameters
namestr

Search keywords to be used by difflib function

completebool, optional

If True, returns only hits with all parameters available

Returns
IDstr

A key to one of the dictionaries mentioned above

References

1

ASHRAE Handbook: Fundamentals. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Incorporated, 2013.

2

DIN EN 12524 (2000-07) Building Materials and Products Hygrothermal Properties - Tabulated Design Values; English Version of DIN EN 12524.

3

Gesellschaft, V. D. I., ed. VDI Heat Atlas. 2nd edition. Berlin; New York:: Springer, 2010.

Examples

>>> nearest_material('stainless steel')
'Metals, stainless steel'

ht.insulation.refractory_VDI_Cp(ID, T=None)[source]

Returns heat capacity of a refractory material from a table in [1]. Here, heat capacity is a function of temperature between 673.15 K and 1473.15 K according to linear interpolation among 5 equally-spaced points. Here, heat capacity is not a function of porosity, affects it. If T is outside the acceptable range, it is rounded to the nearest limit. If T is not provided, the lowest temperature’s value is provided.

Parameters
IDstr

ID corresponding to a material in the dictionary refractories

Tfloat, optional

Temperature of the refractory material, [K]

Returns
Cpfloat

Heat capacity of the refractory material, [W/m/K]

References

1

Gesellschaft, V. D. I., ed. VDI Heat Atlas. 2nd edition. Berlin; New York:: Springer, 2010.

Examples

>>> [refractory_VDI_Cp('Fused silica', i) for i in [None, 200.0, 1000.0, 1500]]
[917.0, 917.0, 956.78225, 982.0]

ht.insulation.refractory_VDI_k(ID, T=None)[source]

Returns thermal conductivity of a refractory material from a table in [1]. Here, thermal conductivity is a function of temperature between 673.15 K and 1473.15 K according to linear interpolation among 5 equally-spaced points. Here, thermal conductivity is not a function of porosity, which can affect it. If T is outside the acceptable range, it is rounded to the nearest limit. If T is not provided, the lowest temperature’s value is provided.

Parameters
IDstr

ID corresponding to a material in the dictionary refractories

Tfloat, optional

Temperature of the refractory material, [K]

Returns
kfloat

Thermal conductivity of the refractory material, [W/m/K]

References

1

Gesellschaft, V. D. I., ed. VDI Heat Atlas. 2nd edition. Berlin; New York:: Springer, 2010.

Examples

>>> [refractory_VDI_k('Fused silica', i) for i in [None, 200.0, 1000.0, 1500]]
[1.44, 1.44, 1.58074, 1.73]

ht.insulation.rho_material(ID)[source]

Returns the density of a building, insulating, or refractory material from tables in [1], [2], and [3]. No temperature dependence is available. Function must be provided with either a key to one of the dictionaries refractories, ASHRAE, or building_materials - or a search term which will pick the closest match based on a fuzzy search. To determine which source the fuzzy search will pick, use the function nearest_material. Fuzzy searches are slow; it is preferable to call this function with a material key directly.

Parameters
IDstr

String as described above

Returns
rhofloat

Density of the material, [kg/m^3]

References

1

ASHRAE Handbook: Fundamentals. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Incorporated, 2013.

2

DIN EN 12524 (2000-07) Building Materials and Products Hygrothermal Properties - Tabulated Design Values; English Version of DIN EN 12524.

3

Gesellschaft, V. D. I., ed. VDI Heat Atlas. 2nd edition. Berlin; New York:: Springer, 2010.

Examples

>>> rho_material('Board, Asbestos/cement')
1900.0