It is equally critical to have a thorough understanding of the insulating material. The correct insulating material helps to ensure optimal equipment operation and protects personnel and sensitive equipment from dangerously hot surfaces and excessively hot air temperatures.
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At Firwin Corporation, we specialize in finding the best insulation materials and designs for your specialized equipment and unique applications. Our comprehensive selection of insulation materials ensures that we will find the perfect insulation solution for your needs. One of Firwin&#;s most versatile insulating materials is Aerogel, a porous, solid material with a high percentage of air and a variety of unique properties.
Aerogel is a class of low-density solid gels in which the liquid has been replaced with air or gas. The structural framework of Aerogel is typically composed of silica, so silica aerogel is often referred to as simply &#;Aerogel.&#; However, other structural materials have been used to create aerogels, including:
Regardless of the material, the preponderance of air in an Aerogel&#;s structure gives it a nearly transparent appearance. The high gas content of Aerogels also gives them a variety of unique properties, including extremely low density, very low thermal conductivity, and very high porosity.
In insulation applications, Aerogel easily outperforms traditional fillers such as wool and fiberglass. In fact, Aerogel offers the same quality insulation with 1/3 the thickness of other insulating materials. However, Aerogel is expensive to manufacture and is rigid and brittle in its basic form, so it requires some supporting material. In addition, Aerogel withstands temperatures up to °F (593 °C), but is not suitable for extremely high-temperature applications that operate above that level.
Silica Aerogel is particularly useful for insulating applications and is one of the most effective insulators available. Although it is more expensive than other insulating materials, Aerogel makes up for its cost by the benefits it offers. Some of these include:
Aerogel has been used as an insulating material for decades. Most notably, it has been used in NASA spacesuits for its exceptionally lightweight and durable nature. As manufacturing technology advances, Aerogel has become increasingly desirable in a broad range of insulating applications, including:
Although Aerogel is typically more expensive than other insulating materials, its enhanced thermal insulating properties with thinner layers make it uniquely suited for confined spaces. In addition, its extremely lightweight characteristics make it ideal for use on light and breakable components that could be damaged by the weight of more traditional insulating materials.
Global energy and environmental issues call for an urgent reduction in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Over the last decade, about 40% of the total U.S. energy use was consumed in residential and commercial buildings [1]. It is estimated that the global energy demand in buildings will at least be doubled by compared to today&#;s levels [2]. As economic growth and urbanization are expected to continue, the energy consumption in the building sector will keep growing. Slowing the growth of energy consumption in the building sector will serve to reduce ownership costs and to slow the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The installation of thermal insulation is one of the most effective approaches to improving the energy efficiency of buildings [1,3,4,5]. There are two methods of improving this thermal insulation; the first is to continue using traditional building insulators, such as mineral wool [6,7], and to increase the total amount of insulation. The drawback of increasing the insulation used is a reduction in floor space and, eventually, an increase in cost. Research results indicated that mineral wool systems showed a more negative environmental impact when considering all the environmental indicators rather than the equivalent systems with expanded polystyrene [8]. The second method of improving thermal insulation is to improve the existing insulation systems or to develop new materials to use as insulators. This is the key tool in designing and constructing energy-efficient buildings. For example, the IEA-EBC Annex 65 Project [9] aims to evaluate the long-term performance of superinsulating materials in building components and systems with a focus on two superinsulating materials, i.e., vacuum insulation panels and advanced porous materials [10,11].
New state-of-the-art insulators [6] include vacuum insulation panels [4,12], gas-filled panels [13], aerogels [14,15,16], and thermal insulation materials [17,18]. One of the most promising new insulators is silica aerogels [19]. The primary reason aerogels are so appealing is their very low thermal conductivity [20]. Commercial aerogels have a thermal conductivity that is typically in the range of 0.013&#;0.015 W/(m·K). In comparison, mineral wool typically has a thermal conductivity between 0.03 and 0.04 W/(m·K). Another characteristic that makes aerogels standout compared to other insulators is their potential transparency [20]. This opens the possibility of aerogels being used as a window and skylight material, not just wall insulation.
A comprehensive review of aerogel thermal insulation cementitious composites was introduced by the authors of [21]. The study presented an in-depth review of the production, mechanical, and durability properties of aerogel composite insulation. A summary of case studies was presented with a strong suggestion for the future implementation of such materials in building insulation. Aerogel insulation implementation has spread to various countries under various climactic environments. For example, the performance of aerogels implemented as a thermal insulation material in residential buildings was evaluated under tropical climates in Nigeria [22]. The study showed a 15% reduction in energy consumption and stated that it was a great potential investment for the energy sector. The authors expressed concern that the high initial price of aerogels might limit their usage. Ganobjak et al. [23] developed a novel insulation system using silica aerogel granules. The authors tested the thermal and mechanical properties, and the results were compared to 3D computer simulations of glass&#;brick wall systems. The thermal conductivity of the glass&#;brick system was 53 mW/(m·K), and it matched the computer modeling well. The authors claimed that the developed system was one of the insulation systems that had the highest performance available in the literature [23].
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The development of aerogel insulation using aramid fiber composites was introduced in [24]. The study included the synthesis of aerogels using tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as the precursor, polyimide (PI) powder as the reinforcing agent, and nonwoven AF as the substrate. The developed insulation material was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) accompanied by mechanical testing. The results demonstrated that the aerogel insulation showed an excellent heat transfer performance and that the thermal conductivity decreased from 4.08 to 3.91 (W/cm·°C) × 10&#;4. Carroll et al. [25] presented various approaches for preparing monolithic silica aerogel windows using a supercritical extraction method. The results presented a glazing design that used thinner monoliths incorporated with artistic dyes and laser etching.
Aerogels as an alternative for thermal insulation in buildings were investigated in [26] through an in-depth review. The review included a comprehensive description of the most relevant properties of aerogels and their insulation capabilities. The effect of silica aerogels on thermal insulation and the acoustic absorption properties of geopolymer foam composites were presented in [27]. The study included four types of silica aerogels as potential energy-saving materials. The aerogels had several ranges of particle sizes (2&#;40 μm, 100&#;700 μm, 100&#; μm, and 700&#; μm) in order to investigate their insulation and acoustic properties. The results showed that the smaller the aerogel particle size, the less effective it was as insulation. The optimum aerogel type showed a thermal conductivity of 0.133 W/(m·K). Yin et al. [28] investigated the thermal performance of an enclosed dome with a double-layered aerogel&#;glass insulation system. The investigation was conducted experimentally using thermometers to monitor the temperature during the summertime. The study parameters were the thermal insulation options: a double-layered membrane roof containing no extra insulation, peripheral wool glass insulation, and all aerogel insulation. The roof with hybrid insulation reduced the average temperature difference by 7.7 °C. Finally, the thermal insulation and moisture resistance of the high-performance silicon aerogel composite foam ceramic and foam glass were investigated in [29]. The authors synthesized new ceramic composite aerogel and foam glass composite aerogel materials. The thermal conductivities were 0. and 0. W/(m·K) at 25 °C for the aerogels and the foam glass composites, respectively. The developed materials showed great potential as insulation for building structures.
While using aerogels is expected to significantly decrease the annual heat loss in residential buildings compared to standard insulation materials [14], the literature contains very limited research conducted on the implementation of aerogel insulation in walls and windows. In addition, there are few full-scale experiments or simulations conducted showing the true potential savings of using aerogels [30,31,32]. The objectives of this study were to determine the thermal properties of silica-aerogel-based walls and windows, to validate these values experimentally, and to apply these validated values to high-fidelity multiphysics simulations. The annual heat loss in a residential building with aerogel insulation was compared to the same building with standard insulation. By completing these objectives, the main contribution of this study was determining the potential energy savings of using aerogels as an insulator in a residential house either as a retrofit to an existing house or in a new house construction. Compared with the previous literature, this study excluded other factors affecting the energy consumption of the residential buildings, such as human activities, and, therefore, facilitated the evaluation of the energy savings as a result of a reduction in the thermal conductivity of the silica aerogels only.
The simulation was run as a parametric study. The proposed parametric study factors were whether aerogels were used in the walls or whether aerogels were used in the windows. Therefore, there was a total of four simulation runs as shown in Table 1. This included the control simulation that did not have aerogels in either the windows or the walls. These studies were performed to see the practical effect of using aerogels in either the walls or the windows and to determine if one was more useful than the other by comparing the results to the control simulation that did not include any aerogels. The amount of the energy savings for each case was reported in the results.
The temperature data taken from The National Centers for Environmental Information [33] were averaged for each month as shown in Table 2. Each simulation scenario in the parametric study was solved for each month of the year. The temperature values in Table 2 were used as the outer-wall temperatures for each month. This approach was taken to reduce the computational costs.
To authenticate this approach, one simulation was conducted to calculate the wall heat rates using the average temperature values for each day. This 365-day simulation was performed on a residential house with standard insulation, i.e., no aerogel insulation. This simulation was compared to the control simulation using the monthly data (Figure 1).
The rate of the heat lost through the walls and windows was solved in the simulations. Figure 2 and Figure 3 show these heat rates when aerogels were used versus standard insulation.
From Figure 2, the average monthly heat lost through the house walls was 13.3% lower when using a ½ inch layer of aerogels rather than standard insulation. Likewise, Figure 3 shows that the average monthly rate of heat lost through the house windows was 39.1% lower when using aerogels in the window gap. It is clear from these results that, when used as an insulator, aerogels reduced the rate of the heat lost through the house&#;s walls and windows. It is important to note that the heat loss rate difference between aerogel insulation and standard insulation was much greater in the windows than in the walls.
The total kWh per month was calculated for each of the four simulations with the following equation:
E=24HrD (1)where Hr is the total rate of the heat lost through the house for each month (kW) and where D is the number of days in the month. Figure 4 shows this kWh loss per month for each simulation.
The kWh loss in Figure 4 represents the energy loss due to the heat lost throughout the entire house, including the windows, walls, floor, doors, etc. However, it does not account for many forms of energy loss in residential homes, such as the appliances, opened windows, opened doors, etc. As expected, the greatest energy loss occurs in the months of November, December, January, and February. The average kWh used over the entire year for the house when no aerogels were used (control) was kWh, and, when aerogels were used in both the windows and walls (both), the average kWh was kWh. Thus, the average kWh per month was 20.9% lower when using aerogels as an insulator. It is clear from the results that the lowest loss of energy occurred when the residential house had aerogels in both the windows and walls. Despite there being more aerogels used when placed in the walls than when placed in the windows, the benefit from using aerogels in the windows was greater than that of its use in the walls.