Abstract
The amount of gas that penetrates the barrier of a vacuum insulation panels is directly linked to the service life of that panel. Therefore, to model and predict vacuum insulation panel service life, it is necessary to model the diffusion through its barriers. Best barriers on the market today are composites of multiple polymer layers with two or more inorganic coatings. It is accepted that the main part of diffusion, in such films, takes place through defects in the coating layers, but there are only a limited number of numerical models for this geometry with more than one coating. In this article, a hybrid model is presented that models gas permeation through film geometry with two coatings on a polymer substrate. Numerical calculations are combined with analytical ones to create a model that does take individual defect sizes as well as actual defect positions into account. Resulting oxygen transmission values calculated with this model have been compared to available manufacturer data with good agreement.
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