the most common form is silica aerogel which
AEROGEL
INSULATION FOR
BUILDINGS
Main author
Buro Happold Engineer Website
Aerogel insulation for buildings
Contents
[hide]
1 Introduction
2 How it works
3 Environmental impact
4 Potential developments
5 Find out more
5.1 Related articles on Designing Buildings
Wiki
5.2 External references
Introduction
Aerogels are synthetic low-density materials
with unique physical properties. They are
formed by removing the liquid from a gel under
special drying conditions, bypassing the
shrinkage and cracking experienced during
ambient evaporation. This creates a solid three-
dimensional nanoporous structure containing
80-99% air.
Due to their high porosity, aerogels exhibit the
lowest thermal conductivity of any solid, whilst
being transparent to light and solar radiation.
Aerogels are often cited as a promising material
for translucent insulation applications. They can
made from practically any material, although
can be produced as granules or in solid
(monolithic) tiles.
Commercial products for the building sector
include:
Cavity insulation.
Glazing units and cladding systems containing
granular aerogel.
Translucent and opaque insulation boards,
blankets and tensile roof membranes
embedded with aerogel particles.
Transparent monolithic silica aerogel has been
cited as the ‘holy grail’ of future glazing
technology, with the potential to achieve U-
values as low as 0.1 W/m2.K. However,
research and development into monolithic
glazing is limited due to the high cost of
production, long processing time and the
difficulty of creating large uniform samples with
complete transparency.
How it works
The total thermal conductivity of porous
insulation depends on the heat transfer
through convection in the pores,
conduction through the solid and pores,
and radiation. Typically, pores within
conventional insulation are over 1mm wide,
allowing gas molecules to move freely and
transfer thermal energy by convection. By
comparison, pores within aerogel can be as
small as 20-40nm (even smaller than the
‘mean free path’ of air at 60-100nm). As a
result, individual air molecules within the
pores have no space to transfer thermal
energy by convection.
Conduction through the solid structure and
air molecules within aerogel is also minimal.
With little space for convection, air
molecules constantly collide with the walls
of the pores, suppressing gas conduction.
Furthermore, as aerogel only contains 0.1-
5% silica and the thermal conductivity of air
is very low, heat transfer is minimal and
conduction in the gas will diminish with any
decreases in pressure. A vacuum inside the
pores results in the best insulating
properties, with thermal conductivity of
0.004 W/m.K (ten times better than
conventional insulation).
The amount of radiative heat transfer
through aerogel is dependant on the
intensity and wavelength of the thermal
radiation, the optical properties of the
material, the size and shape of its pores and
its overall thickness. At ambient
temperature, the nanosized pores and
particles provide effective attenuation of
infrared thermal radiation due to high levels
of absorption and reflection.
The optical and infrared properties of silica
aerogels have been well studied. Silica
aerogels can be considered transparent
insulation materials that effectively
transmit solar light, but block thermal
infrared radiation.
The material exhibits high translucency,
often accompanied by a slight bluish haze.
This can be attributed to ‘Rayleigh
scattering’, an optical phenomenon that
occurs when light scatters off particles
smaller than the wavelength of light, where
shorter wavelengths in the blue spectrum
are most easily scattered.
Environmental
impact
To make aerogel involves three key steps:
gel preparation, ageing and drying. The aim
is to create a gel, strengthen and purify it,
then remove all liquid from the pores
without collapsing the solid structure
(achieved through super-critical or sub-
critical drying techniques). These processes
typically involve mixing reasonably toxic
chemicals and undertaking complex
diffusion controlled processes that consume
a lot of solvent. Furthermore, the final step
is often accompanied by intensive drying
processes which may consume large
amounts of energy and CO2.
Despite this, In 2008, the two major
manufactures of silica aerogel both
received ‘Silver’ cradle-to-cradle
environmental awards from McDonough
Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) for
their aerogel production. MBDC claim to
evaluate a products complete formulation,
energy use, water use and recycling
potential when assessing environmental
impacts. However, the data from these
studies is confidential, making it difficult to
assess the rigour and validity of the results.
To investigate these issues further, Mark
Dowson conducted a first hand life cycle
assessment (LCA) of silica aerogel following
ISO standards. Working in collaboration
with the University of Bath (who
manufacture aerogel as part of an optics
research programme) Mark made some
aerogel himself, and measured the raw
material and electricity use across the
production line.
The findings from the study demonstrated
how the energy and CO2 required to
manufacture high performance silica
aerogel insulation can be recovered within
0-2 years (when comparing results to the in-
use savings arising from retrofitting to
single glazing). Key factors influencing the
environmental payback were the efficiency
of production and re-use / recycling of
materials such as liquid CO2 and solvents.
polycarbonate cover filled with
granular aerogel insulation.
See Transparent insulation materials for
more information.
This article is based on a paper written by
Mark Dowson of --Buro Happold. An online
version of Mark's EngD thesis can be
downloaded at the Brunel University
website:
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/7
075/3/FulltextThesis.pdf

Potential
developments
Within Buro Happold, Mark Dowson
undertook an Engineering Doctorate (EngD),
in collaboration with Brunel University,
focusing on developing and testing new
building fabric technologies incorporating
translucent granular aerogel encapsulated
inside clear polycarbonate sheets to
improve the thermal performance of new
and existing buildings. Three technologies
have been developed, with promising initial
results:

 Retrofitting polycarbonate panels

filled with aerogel granules to
existing windows to improve their
thermal performance.
 Retrofitting a translucent aerogel
panel to the outside of a concrete
wall to trap solar energy that can be
used to passively warm a building.
 An aerogel solar collector
incorporating a translucent