Study on the effect of semi-transparency on thermal insulation performance of silica aerogel composites

This paper centralizes its focus on elucidating the distinctive thermal insulation performance of silica aerogel composites, emphasizing their semitransparent attributes under diverse heating methodologies. Firstly, the theoretical prediction of conductive thermal conductivity is undertaken utilizing the spherical hollow cube model and Davies model. Subsequently, the radiative thermal conductivity is numerically derived employing the two-flux approximation model, integrating experimental measurements of optical radiation characteristic parameters. The prediction results under high-temperature are validated by the measured data via a Hot Disk instrument, utilizing the transient plane source method. Finally, the influence of semitransparent properties of the aerogel composites on thermal insulation performance is exhaustively investigated. This is conducted through a meticulous examination of temperature responses resulting from distinct heating modalities, namely contact heating, quartz lamp heating, and arc heated wind tunnel heating. The findings discernibly illustrate that these diverse heating mechanisms significantly impact the thermal insulation performance of aerogel composites endowed with semitransparent characteristics.