Thermal conductivity of glass fiber-reinforced silica aerogels using molecular dynamics simulations

SP Patil and BS Bachhav and B Markert, CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL, 48, 2250-2256 (2022).

DOI: 10.1016/j.ceramint.2021.10.002

Silica aerogels are low-density, low-thermal conductivity, and highly porous solids used in a wide range of applications. In the present work, the glass fibers-reinforced silica aemgels nanocomposite models were investigated for thermal conductivity using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Here, the glass fibers weight percentage (% wt) was varied from 2.14 to 21.20%, i. e., the density of the silica aerogel nanocomposite ranged from 252 to 307 kg m(-3). The thermal conductivity increases with the % wt of glass fibers for the considered range. However, the increase was insignificant, i. e., from 0.0357 to 0.048 W m(-1) K-1. Moreover, the thermal conductivity varies with the density of nanocomposite according to a power-law with an exponent of 1.90 +/- 0.18. Furthermore, the obtained thermal conductivity values of silica aerogels and their nanocomposites are in good agreement with experimental and computational studies. The outcome shows that the glass fibers-reinforced silica aerogels nanocomposites can be used for low- thermal conductivity applications.

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