Stress formation during heating in supercritical drying

Silica aerogel preparation is analyzed and two different supercritical drying techniques, autoclave drying of the solvent and drying following carbon dioxide exchange of the solvent, are compared in terms of stress formation during the heating step. The model used is a partial differential equation that relates stress to thermal expansion and flow of Fore liquid for a radially bounded cylindrical geometry and the model is modified to see the effect of condensation reactions that result in the contraction of the body. The finite element collocation method is used to solve the model for different drying techniques, at several heating rates, and shear moduli. The carbon dioxide exchange method is found to be more advantageous as Far as the stress formation in the heating step of supercritical drying is concerned. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.