evacuatedglazingalowheatlossandhighvisual（6页）.doc

Heat SET 2007 Heat Transfer in Components and Systems for Sustainable Energy Technologies 18-20 April 2007, Chambery, France THE INFLUENCE OF EDGE SEAL AND GLAZING SIZE ON THE THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF VACUUM GLAZING Yueping Fanga, y.fang@ulster.ac.uk Philip C. Eamesb, p.c.eames@warwick.ac.uk Brian Nortonc, president@dit.ie Trevor J. Hydea, t.hyde@ulster.ac.uk Neil Hewitta, nj.hewitt@ulster.ac.uk aCentre for Sustainable Technologies, School of the Built Environment, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, BT37 0QB, N. Ireland, UK bSchool of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK cDublin institute of technology, Dublin 2 Ireland ABSTRACT The thermal performance of vacuum glazing was simulated using an experimentally validated finite volume model to investigate the effect of edge seal and glazing size. It was found that for a 500 mm by 500 mm vacuum glazing with edge seals of width of 3 mm and 6 mm, when using indium for the edge seal the increase in total heat transfer coefficient of the vacuum glazing compared to when using solder glass to form the edge seal was less than 0.4%, although the thermal conductivity of indium is significantly greater than that of solder glass. Comparing the heat conductance of 300 mm by 300 mm and 1000 mm by 1000 mm vacuum glazing with a 6mm wide indium edge seal revealed a reduction in glazing heat conductance of 66.7% for the larger sample. The area of vacuum glazing is a significant factor in determining the thermal performance that can be achieved, with for small samples edge effects having a