Experimental analysis of vacuum pressure and gas flow rate in structured-core transparent vacuum insulation panels

Abstract

The notion that modern buildings should strive to be net-zero energy buildings (NZEBs) is widely accepted. One of the causes leading to high energy usage for space heating, resulting in avoidable carbon emissions, is heat loss via building windows. In order to improve window’s insulation in existing buildings, structured-core transparent vacuum insulation panels (TVIPs) are proposed. TVIPs mainly consist of the structured core material, the low-emissivity film, and the transparent gas barrier envelope. TVIPs have high insulation performance and are inexpensive to manufacture and can be easily installed. Therefore, TVIPs have the potential to improve window’s insulation in existing buildings at a low cost. However, it is necessary to overcome the issue of preventing the pressure rise inside TVIP after vacuum sealing. The authors constructed an experimental setup to quantify the effect of reduction of gas flow rate in TVIP after evacuation by applying the pressure-rate-of-rise-method. In this experiment, a gas barrier film with a straw was used as the vacuum chamber. This could reproduce the pressure increase in the TVIP after sealing and the gas flow rate in the TVIP is evaluated. The experimental result shows that the coated core material and the enclosing getter agent lowered the pressure rise and gas flow rate in TVIP by combining concurrent evacuation and heating. Furthermore, after extending the simultaneous vacuuming and heating period to 8 h and applying the coated core material, and enclosing the getter agent, the internal pressure in TVIP may be lowered to around 1 Pa after 30 min after halting vacuuming. It was confirmed that this pressure satisfied the performance required for TVIPs, and the result was much closer to the realization of TVIPs.