Polymer Nanoencapsulated Surfactant Templated Aerogel Core Composites for Multifunctional Application

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: In this work, processes are developed to prepare crosslinked aerogel composite sandwich structure to provide multifunctionality. The crosslinked aerogel sandwich structures will be characterized to determine their acoustic and mechanical properties. The sound absorption coefficient and sound transmission loss are measured by an impedance tube, with the use of two and four microphones set-up, an oscilloscope and a noise generator. For mechanical testing, flexural test (ASTM D-790) was used to evaluate the strength and stiffness of crosslinked aerogel composite structure in three point bending. The results are compared with conventional Nomex core composites. Experimental data are compared with analytical and numerical results. Findings and Conclusions: Results showed that when light weight crosslinked aerogel was used as a core material in a sandwich structures, the sound insulation was enhanced when compared to conventional Nomex honeycomb core. It was also shown that when crosslinked aerogel were embedded into honeycomb, the performance of sound insulation was close to crosslinked aerogel core with density lowered by 12%. The sound transmission loss was compared favorably with some common insulation materials. Mechanical testing showed great improvement in flexural modulus and strength for crosslinked aerogel core but brittle failure mode was occurred at 0.8 flexural strain. For crosslinked aerogel embedded into Nomex honeycomb, the flexural modulus and strength were lowered by 37.5% and 44.6%, respectively when compared to crosslinked aerogel core but it resisted higher deflection before failure.