Gaseous Conductivity Study on Silica Aerogel and Its Composite Insulation Materials

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical and experimental study on gaseous conductivity of silica aerogel and composite insulation materials. First, the insulation material samples (including silica aerogel, xonotlite-type calcium silicate, xonotlite-aerogel composite, and ceramic fiber-aerogel composite) were prepared. Next, the gaseous conductivities of the prepared samples were measured from 0.045 Pa to atmospheric pressure using the transient hot-strip (THS) method. The gaseous conductivity expressions obtained based on the kinetic theory were then compared with the experimental results. It is shown that the gaseous conductivity of both xonotlite-type calcium silicate and silica aerogel decreases significantly with decreasing pressure. The gaseous conductivities of xonotlite-type calcium silicate and silica aerogel reach zero at about 100 Pa and 104 Pa, respectively. The theoretical gaseous conductivity expressions match well with the experimental results of xonotlite-type calcium silicate and silica aerogel but not with the experimental results for the composite insulation materials. This mismatch indicates that the aerogel does not totally fill the original interspace of the xonotlite-type calcium silicate and ceramic fiber in the two kinds of composite insulation materials.