Experimental and CFD Investigation on the Application for Aerogel Insulation in Buildings

Abstract

Reducing building energy consumption is a significant challenge and is one of the most important research areas worldwide. Insulation will help to keep the building’s desired temperature by reducing the heat flow. Additionally, proper insulation can provide an extended period of comfort, leading to reduced building energy requirements. Encapsulated air is the major aspect of most thermal insulation materials. Low thermal conductivity is a good characteristic of thermal insulation materials. Aerogel has low thermal conductivity, so it is suitable for glazing and insulation purposes. This research paper investigates the effectiveness of aerogel as an insulation material in buildings by incorporating a translucent aerogel-glazing system in the window and aerogel insulation in the wall of a building. Experimental investigation of a 10 mm thick aerogel blanket surrounded box was conducted to assess its performance. Additionally, a CFD simulation was conducted, and the results of temperature degradation for the wall showed good agreement with experimental results. Additionally, the CFD simulation of temperature decay was compared between the aerogel-glazed window and argon-glazed window. It was found that the aerogel-glazed window has slower temperature decay compared to the argon-glazed window. The results showed that integrating aerogel in the glazing system and wall insulation in a building has the potential to reduce the building’s energy consumption. Moreover, a numeric simulation was conducted, and showed that the building’s annual energy consumption is reduced by 6% with the use of aerogel insulation compared to fiberglass.