Modeling Aerogels: Structure and Flow Properties

The highly porous nature of aerogels could make them an effective alternative to the expensive noble metals currently used in catalytic converters. The extremely high surface area of nanoscale aerogel structures would make them an effective monolith substrate material. However, these structures also make it incredibly difficult for flow to travel through aerogels. This project is concerned with examining methods to model flow through nanoscale aerogel structures. The Porous Microstructure Generator, an open source structural modeling program,  was used to create 3-D microstructures with similar scale, porosity, and properties as aerogels. Models were created using percolating, branching, and spherical generation methods. Flow through generated aerogel-like structures was then calculated at the microscopic level using the Porous Microstructure Generator’s built in Lattice Boltzmann Method solver and modeled in ParaView. To test solution accuracy, basic structures were generated at the macroscale and flow was modeled through them using both Lattice Boltzmann and the Navier Stokes equations in Star CCM+. It was determined that the Porous Microstructure Generator is an effective tool for generating and modeling flow through 3-D aerogel-like structures but further development is needed before this tool can be applied to actual aerogels.