Objective Normally, the weak part of the thermal envelope of a building is the window area. In order to improve the window area thermally and maintain a good solar transmittance, monolithic silica xerogel will be applied as transparent insulation material in glazings. The objectives of this project are to develop and investigate highly insulating glazings with evacuated monolithic silica xerogel, and to improve the production process of monolithic silica xerogel for this purpose. The deliverables of the project will be different sets of samples and glazing units at prototype level, periodic progress reports and a final report covering all the work done, objectives achieved and conclusions.Brief Description of the research project: Until now the thermal improvements of glazings have been obtained e.g by the use of extra layers of glass and low-e coatings. However the solar transmittance will decrease. To a great extent, this can be avoided by application of transparent insulation. The project focus on the application of monolithic silica xerogel as transparent insulation material in glazings. The work is organized in the three task: Task 1 - Material and process, task 2 - Characterization and task 3 - Application. Task 1 deals with production process and improvements of xerogel. In order to optimize and scale up the production process studies of the chemical reactions during the process and of the structure of xerogels will be carried out. The improvements of the material concerns mainly optimization of the optical (solar transmittance and clarity) and the thermal properties. Task 2 deals with characterization of xerogel with respect to mechanical, optical and thermal properties. The results will be used in task 1 at the optimization of the process and in task 3 at the optimization of evacuated glazings with xerogel. Task 3 deals with the development and investigation of glazings with evacuated xerogel. A major topic will be the rim seal of the xerogel glazing with respect to durability, airtightness and cold bridge effect. Furthermore full scale prototypes of xerogel glazings will be tested and towards the end of the project a xerogel window will be tested in a PASSYS Test Cell according to the common European test procedure for characterization. The energy saving potential for the use of xerogel windows in typical buildings will be calculated. Xerogel windows are expected to be able to replace existing windows. And such a replacement in the existing housing stock are expected to give a saving of up to about 20 % of the energy consumption for space heating. Fields of science engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and filmsnatural scienceschemical sciences Programme(s) FP3-JOULE 2 - Specific research and technological development programme (EEC) in the field of non-nuclear energy, 1990-1994 Topic(s) 040202 - Buildings Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator Danmarks Tekniske Universitet Address 2800 Lyngby Denmark See on map EU contribution € 0,00 Participants (7) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all ASSOCIATION POUR LA RECHERCHE ET LE DEVELOPPEMENT DES METHODES ET PROCESSUS INDUSTRIELS France EU contribution € 0,00 Address Rue claude daunesse "les lucioles" 06904 Sophia antipolis See on map Airglass AB Sweden EU contribution € 0,00 Address Braagarpsvaegen 245 00 Staffanstorp See on map CENTRE SCIENTIFIQUE ET TECHNIQUE DU BATIMENT - CSTB France EU contribution € 0,00 Address 4, avenue du recteur poincare 75782 Paris See on map Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet Norway EU contribution € 0,00 Address 7034 Trondheim See on map Produits Chimiques Auxiliaires et de Synthâse France EU contribution € 0,00 Address 23,rue bosquet 23 91161 Longjumeau See on map UNIVERSITY OF WUERZBURG Germany EU contribution € 0,00 Address Am hubland 97074 Wuerzburg See on map Université de Lyon I (Université Claude Bernard) France EU contribution € 0,00 Address 43 boulevard du 11 novembre 1918 69622 Villeurbanne See on map
