Corrigendum to "Comparative study of a cubic, Kelvin and Weaire-Phelan unit cell for the prediction of the thermal conductivity of low-density silica aerogels [Microporous Mesoporous Mater. Volume 301 (2020) 110206 p. 1–11]"

Our original paper tackled the prediction of the thermal conductivity of low-density silica aerogels via simplified unit cells [1], which allows including the thermal phenomena occurring at the length scale of the silica secondary beads. The particular contributions of solid conduction [2] [3], gas conduction [4] and radiation [5] [6] [7] [8] are determined via analytical models. The bulk thermal conductivity is estimated by a combination of these separate contributions incorporated in a specific finite element (FE) mesh representing the solid and gaseous part of an aerogel. Our original paper concluded that the type of unit cell is crucial for the accurate prediction of the bulk thermal conductivity. However, upon revisiting the numerical simulations and the applied data, we discovered that the calculation and implementation of the solid and gaseous conduction is deficient, thus necessitating two corrections. The first correction entails the calculation of the solid backbone’s thermal conductivity in which the constricted transmission path calculation between beads was included two times: analytically and geometrically. The second correction comprises the incorrect use of the Kaganer model which is not suited in combination with the originally stated unit cell approach. The proposed corrections are implemented in new numerical calculations and the impacts on the earlier outcomes are described.

Publication year:2021

Accessibility:Open