Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Design Of Diffusiometer For Aerogel Monoliths, Kamin Sylvia

Honors Theses

Aerogels’ have great potential to be used as catalytic substrates and filters. To use them as such, we must first understand how gas flows through them. Diffusivity is a property of aerogels that relates the gas flow through a sample with the pressure gradient driving the flow. This project sets out to design an experimental apparatus (diffusiometer) and methodology that can be used to obtain diffusivity values of various kinds of aerogels. Adapting the method outlined in Stumpf et. al 1992[1], a diffusiometer was designed and built for aerogels at sub-atmospheric pressures. This device utilizes a control mass system rather …