Theoretical and experimental investigation of haze in transparent aerogels
Name
oe-27-4-A39.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
4.82 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
986fdcb1fcecce8887d170e551b2a7c3
Author(s)
Zhao, Lin
Strobach, Elise
Bhatia, Bikram
Yang, Sungwoo
Leroy, Arny
Zhang, Lenan
Wang, Evelyn N
Date Issued
2019
Journal
Optics Express
Publisher
The Optical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© 2019 Optical Society of America. Haze in optically transparent aerogels severely degrades the visual experience, which has prevented their adoption in windows despite their outstanding thermal insulation property. Previous studies have primarily relied on experiments to characterize haze in aerogels, however, a theoretical framework to systematically investigate haze in porous media is lacking. In this work, we present a radiative transfer model that can predict haze in aerogels based on their physical properties. The model is validated using optical characterization of custom-fabricated, highly-transparent monolithic silica aerogels. The fundamental relationships between the aerogel structure and haze highlighted in this study could lead to a better understanding of light-matter interaction in a wide range of transparent porous materials and assist in the development of low-haze silica aerogels for high-performance glazing units to reduce building energy consumption.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.27.000A39
