Transparent Vacuum Insulation Panels

Abstract

New, low-cost transparent vacuum insulation panels (TVIPs) using structured cores for the windows of existing buildings are proposed. The TVIP is produced by inserting the structured core, the low-emissivity film, and the adsorbent into the transparent gas barrier envelopes. In this chapter, the authors introduce the outlines, the design and thermal analysis method, the performance evaluation (test) method. Firstly, five spacers, namely peek, modified peek, mesh, silica aerogel, and frame, are selected as the structured core. The effective thermal conductivity of TVIPs with five different spacers is evaluated at different pressure levels by applying numerical calculation. The result indicated that TVIPs with frame and mesh spacers accomplish better insulation performance, with a center-of-panel apparent thermal conductivity of 7.0 × 10−3 W/m K at a pressure of 1 Pa. The apparent thermal conductivity is the same as the value obtained by the simultaneous evacuation thermal conductivity measurement applying the heat flux meter method. Furthermore, using a frame-type TVIP with a total thickness of 3 mm attached to an existing window as a curtain decreases the space heat loss by approximately 69.5%, whereas the light transparency decreases to 75%.