An investigation on thermal performance characteristics of hollow-core vacuum insulated panels

As concerns over climate change stimulate legislation for performance improvement in the building industry, in an effort to mitigate embodied and operational carbon footprint, high performance insulating solutions are gaining attention and invite further research in this area. Hollow-core VIPs are an alternative vacuum insulating technology that can provide thin insulating cladding solutions while avoiding some vulnerabilities of high performance insulating materials such as fumed silica VIPs.This thesis aims to develop and evaluate the performance of a conceptual prototype of hollow-core VIPs. Initial simulations of a simplied model were used to evaluate desirable values for main parameters such as emissivity and panel thickness. Desirable panel thickness lies between 20 and 50mm to eliminate convection at a pressure of 0.01 Pa and emissivity lower than 0.1 is necessary to stifle radiation. A more detailed model representing a node within a full size VIP was developed and tested in a vacuum chamber and compared to transient simulations to study its thermal performance. Nodes with three structural array congurations were manufactured from stainless steel, PTFE and epoxy resin to analyse performance in different panel thicknesses (25 and 50mm) and with different internal surface emissivity.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Aguilar Cardenas, Mauricio

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kendrick, Christopher
• Resalati, Shahaboddin
• Heywood, Martin

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/fpbc-r115

OAI identifier oai:identifier

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