Study of the behavior of insulating materials in a high humidity environment

Extruded polystyrene (XPS) is presented as non-absorbent material and it is applied in building construction with high moisture, such as inverted roof. The reason for that is a very good ratio of thermal and mechanical properties and it is used in moisture-loaded applications due to the closed pore structure and high diffusion resistance factor, which are declared by the manufacturers. Long-term experience and studies show that XPS accumulates moisture during long-term exposure in an environment with high humidity. A long-term water absorption test at full immersion for 84 days has been proposed to better illustrate the trend of increasing water absorption. A total of 6 products from different manufacturers that are recommended for inverted roof application, were tested. All tested XPS products have reached high amount of water absorption. The main goal was to map the real properties of XPS at high humidity loads. It was found that each product showed a different degradation of thermal conductivity at the same volume moisture value. Furthermore, there was found the connection between the surface structure and amount of water absorption. Products with waffle structure had higher humidity than products with a fine structure