The influence of expandable polystyrene fillers on properties of water-blown rigid polyurethane foams

This work presents the results of study of fillers addition influence on selected properties of polyurethane/polystyrene porous composite. The porous materials based on water blown rigid polyurethane foam (RPURF) matrix containing thermoplastic expandable polystyrene (EPS) beads as the fillers were obtained. In RPURF-EPS composites, the EPS beads were expanded after heating above the glass transition temperature of EPS and vaporing EPS gas incorporated inside, by using the heat of exothermic reaction of polyol with isocyanate. The thermal conductivity, compressive strength, core apparent density and dimensional stability of new materials were investigated.