High-temperature service stability of a novel ceramic composite insulation material

Advanced inorganic insulation materials with long term safety service performance at high temperature is crucial for energy saving of high-temperature equipment and steam transportation pipelines. We have developed a novel ceramic composite insulation material (CCIM) which has been proven to have excellent insulation capacity at high temperatures. This study investigated the high temperature stability of CCIM and its performance evolution. It was found that the thermal conductivity of the material decreased initially and then increased a little with the increase of heat treatment temperature. Overall, it maintained good insulation and mechanical properties below 600 °C. At a heat treatment temperature of 800 °C, the thermal conductivity of the material increased slowly with the increase of heat treatment time, but the compressive strength decreased rapidly. The accelerated aging experimental method was used to predict the performance changes of CCIM after long-term use, which shows the material can serve normally for 14.73 years at 600 °C. The excellent long term thermal stability can be verified by a real case of application in power plants for over ten years. The material's structure did not show significant change after ten years’ service at 560 °C, therefore still maintained good thermal insulation capability.