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Title: Advanced Duct Sealing Testing

Abstract

Duct leakage has been identified as a major source of energy loss in residential buildings. Most duct leakage occurs at the connections to registers, plenums or branches in the duct system. At each of these connections a method of sealing the duct system is required. Typical sealing methods include tapes or mastics applied around the joints in the system. Field examinations of duct systems have typically shown that these seals tend to fail over extended periods of time. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been testing sealant durability for several years. Typical duct tape (i.e. fabric backed tapes with natural rubber adhesives) was found to fail more rapidly than all other duct sealants. This report summarizes the results of duct sealant durability testing of five UL 181B-FX listed duct tapes (three cloth tapes, a foil tape and an Oriented Polypropylene (OPP) tape). One of the cloth tapes was specifically developed in collaboration with a tape manufacturer to perform better in our durability testing. The first test involved the aging of common ''core-to-collar joints'' of flexible duct to sheet metal collars, and sheet metal ''collar-to-plenum joints'' pressurized with 200 F (93 C) air. The second test consisted of baking duct tapemore » specimens in a constant 212 F (100 C) oven following the UL 181B-FX ''Temperature Test'' requirements. Additional tests were also performed on only two tapes using sheet metal collar-to-plenum joints. Since an unsealed flexible duct joint can have a variable leakage depending on the positioning of the flexible duct core, the durability of the flexible duct joints could not be based on the 10% of unsealed leakage criteria. Nevertheless, the leakage of the sealed specimens prior to testing could be considered as a basis for a failure criteria. Visual inspection was also documented throughout the tests. The flexible duct core-to-collar joints were inspected monthly, while the sheet metal collar-to-plenum joints were inspected weekly. The baking test specimens were visually inspected weekly, and the durability was judged by the observed deterioration in terms of brittleness, cracking, flaking and blistering (the terminology used in the UL 181B-FX test procedure).« less

Authors:
;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
California Energy Commission. Public Interest Energy Research Program . Contract 500-01-002; Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Building Technologies Program (US)
OSTI Identifier:
817246
Report Number(s):
LBNL-53547
R&D Project: 807V; TRN: US200321%%340
DOE Contract Number:  
AC03-76SF00098
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: 1 Aug 2003
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; ADHESIVES; AGING; AIR; BAKING; BRITTLENESS; DUCTS; MANUFACTURERS; NATURAL RUBBER; OVENS; POLYPROPYLENE; POSITIONING; RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS; TESTING

Citation Formats

Sherman, Max H, and Walker, Iain S. Advanced Duct Sealing Testing. United States: N. p., 2003. Web. doi:10.2172/817246.
Sherman, Max H, & Walker, Iain S. Advanced Duct Sealing Testing. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/817246
Sherman, Max H, and Walker, Iain S. 2003. "Advanced Duct Sealing Testing". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/817246. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/817246.
@article{osti_817246,
title = {Advanced Duct Sealing Testing},
author = {Sherman, Max H and Walker, Iain S},
abstractNote = {Duct leakage has been identified as a major source of energy loss in residential buildings. Most duct leakage occurs at the connections to registers, plenums or branches in the duct system. At each of these connections a method of sealing the duct system is required. Typical sealing methods include tapes or mastics applied around the joints in the system. Field examinations of duct systems have typically shown that these seals tend to fail over extended periods of time. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been testing sealant durability for several years. Typical duct tape (i.e. fabric backed tapes with natural rubber adhesives) was found to fail more rapidly than all other duct sealants. This report summarizes the results of duct sealant durability testing of five UL 181B-FX listed duct tapes (three cloth tapes, a foil tape and an Oriented Polypropylene (OPP) tape). One of the cloth tapes was specifically developed in collaboration with a tape manufacturer to perform better in our durability testing. The first test involved the aging of common ''core-to-collar joints'' of flexible duct to sheet metal collars, and sheet metal ''collar-to-plenum joints'' pressurized with 200 F (93 C) air. The second test consisted of baking duct tape specimens in a constant 212 F (100 C) oven following the UL 181B-FX ''Temperature Test'' requirements. Additional tests were also performed on only two tapes using sheet metal collar-to-plenum joints. Since an unsealed flexible duct joint can have a variable leakage depending on the positioning of the flexible duct core, the durability of the flexible duct joints could not be based on the 10% of unsealed leakage criteria. Nevertheless, the leakage of the sealed specimens prior to testing could be considered as a basis for a failure criteria. Visual inspection was also documented throughout the tests. The flexible duct core-to-collar joints were inspected monthly, while the sheet metal collar-to-plenum joints were inspected weekly. The baking test specimens were visually inspected weekly, and the durability was judged by the observed deterioration in terms of brittleness, cracking, flaking and blistering (the terminology used in the UL 181B-FX test procedure).},
doi = {10.2172/817246},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/817246}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2003},
month = {Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2003}
}