Evaluation of thermal performance for vacuum glazing by using three-dimensional finite element model

Simulation analysis of thermal performance for vacuum glazing was conducted in this paper. The heat conduction through the support pillars and edge seal and the radiation between two glass sheets were considered. The heat conductance of residual gas in vacuum gap was ignored for a low pressure of less than 0.1Pa. Two pieces of vacuum glazing with sizes of 0.3 × 0.3 m and 1.0 × 1.0 m were simulated. In order to check the accuracy of simulations with specified mesh number, the thermal performance of a small central area (4mm×4mm) with a single pillar in the center was simulated using a graded mesh of 41×41×5 nodes. The heat transfer coefficients of this unit obtained from simulation and analytic prediction were 2.194Wm-2K -1 and 2.257Wm-2K-1 respectively, with a deviation of 2.79%. The three dimensional (3D) isotherms and two dimensional (2D) isotherms on the cold and hot surfaces of the specimens were also presented. For a validity of simulated results, a guarded hot box calorimeter was used to determine the experimental thermal performance of 1.0m×1.0m vacuum glazing. The overall heat transfer coefficients obtained from experiment and simulation were 2.55Wm-2K-1 and 2.47Wm -2K-1 respectively, with a deviation of 3.14%. © (2012) Trans Tech Publications.