ABSTRACT
Aerogel-filled sandwich structures were produced using woven carbon fiber prepregs to form a grid produced of compartments to hold in silica aerogel and the face-sheets to envelop the grid. The, thus formed, samples were cured in a convection oven. The quality of the cured products proved that the adopted process of co-cured fabrication was practical, feasible and acceptable. A localized heat source was mounted onto the upper surface of an aerogel sandwich specimen and temperature distribution was recorded along the lower surface until the thermal equilibrium. The temperature measurements revealed that the presence of aerogel inside the composites that the presence of aerogel inside the composites typically resulted in a temperature difference of 85°C across the 15mm thickness of the sandwich, with the hot side maintained at 130°C. The weight of these composites was comparable to other light honeycomb sandwich structures. These studies thus demonstrate that the aerogel-filled sandwich composites are promising lightweight heat insulators of future.
Keywords: Aerogel, Carbon composites, Sandwich structure, Co-curing, Heat transfer.
