Production of aerogel under bead form at Aspen Aerogels Inc. has made possible utilization of this material in various forms, such as pourable, formable, and sprayable insulation with excellent versatility in a variety of applications with critical low weight requirements. Flowable aerogel insulation showed lower thermal conductivity with decreasing the bead size, increasing the packing density and at lower pressures. Formable bead binder panels showed superior thermal performance compared to the bead foam insulation, while the latter showed superior mechanical strength, outperforming the Sprayed on Foam Insulation (SOFI) used on the External Shuttle Tank. Sprayed aerogel insulation has lower thermal conductivity than the SOFI foam at various temperatures and has good mechanical integrity under high enthalpy at 100°C. Aerogel insulation showed improved thermal and dimensional stability compared to polyurethane foams at cryogenic conditions and after heating at 200°C.
Lightweight Aerogel Bead Insulation
11th Biennial ASCE Aerospace Division International Conference on Engineering, Science, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments ; 2008 ; Long Beach, California, United States
Earth & Space 2008 ; 1-8
2008-09-04
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English