Dual Phase Change Thermal Diodes for Enhanced Rectification Ratios: Theory and Experiment

Thermal diodes are materials that allow for the preferential directional transport of heat and are highly promising devices for energy conservation, energy harvesting, and information processing applications. One form of a thermal diode consists of the junction between a phase change and phase invariant material, with rectification ratios that scale with the square root of the ratio of thermal conductivities of the two phases. In this work, the authors introduce and analyse the concept of a Dual Phase Change Thermal Diode (DPCTD) as the junction of two phase change materials with similar phase boundary temperatures but opposite temperature coefficients of thermal conductivity. Such systems possess a significantly enhanced optimal scaling of the rectification ratio as the square root of the product of the thermal conductivity ratios. Furthermore, the authors experimentally design and fabricate an ambient DPCTD enabled by the junction of an octadecane‐impregnated polystyrene foam, polymerized using a high internal phase emulsion template (PFH‐O) and a poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) aqueous solution. The DPCTD shows a significantly enhanced thermal rectification ratio both experimentally (2.6) and theoretically (2.6) as compared with ideal thermal diodes composed only of the constituent materials.     

Dual phase lag bio-heat transfer during cryosurgery of lung cancer: Comparison of three heat transfer models

The Pennes bio-heat model is based on Fourier's law of heat conduction, which assumed that a thermal signal propagate with infinite speed. This gives contradiction in physical situation. Also, the hyperbolic bio-heat model considers the micro scale response in time, but it does not explain the micro scale response in space. Therefore, to consider the thermal behaviour which is not captured by the Fourier's law and to take into account the microstructural effect in space, a dual phase lag (DPL) bio-heat conduction model would be advantageous. In this paper, a two dimensional DPL model is proposed to study the phase change heat transfer process during cryosurgery of lung cancer. The governing equations are solved numerically by enthalpy based finite difference method. The non-ideal behaviour of tissue and heat source terms, metabolism and blood perfusion are also considered. This study is made to examine the effects of phase lags in heat flux and temperature gradient on interface positions and temperature distribution during freezing process. A comparative study of DPL, parabolic and hyperbolic conduction models is thoroughly investigated. It is found that the phase lags of temperature gradient and heat flux have significant effect on interface positions and temperature distribution.     

Application of pressure perturbation calorimetry to lipid bilayers

Pressure perturbation calorimetry (PPC) is a new method that measures the heat consumed or released by a sample after a sudden pressure jump. The heat change can be used to derive the thermal volume expansion coefficient, alpha(V), as a function of temperature and, in the case of phase transitions, the volume change, DeltaV, occurring at the phase transition. Here we present the first report on the application of PPC to determine these quantities for lipid bilayers. We measure the volume changes of the pretransition and main transition of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC), and the thermal expansivity of the fluid phase of DMPC and of two unsaturated lipids, 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine and 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine. The high sensitivity of PPC instrumentation gives accurate data for alpha(V) and DeltaV even upon the application of relatively low pressures of approximately 5 bar.     

Analysis of diffusion delay in a layered medium. Application to heat measurements from muscle.

An analysis is presented of diffusional delays in one-dimensional heat flow through a medium consisting of several layers of different materials. The model specifically addresses the measurement of heat production by muscle, but diffusion of solute or conduction of charge through a layered medium will obey the same equations. The model consists of a semi-infinite medium, the muscle, in which heat production is spacially uniform but time varying. The heat diffuses through layers of solution and insulation to the center of the thermal element where heat flow is zero. Using Laplace transforms, transfer functions are derived for the temperature change in the center of the thermopile as a function of the temperature at any interface between differing materials or as a function of heat production in the muscle. From these transfer functions, approximate analytical expressions are derived for the time constants which scale the early and late changes in the central temperature. We find that the earliest temperature changes are limited by the diffusivities of the materials, whereas the approach to steady state depends on the total heat capacity of the system and the diffusivity of muscle. Hill (1937) analyzed a similar geometry by modeling the layered medium as a homogeneous system with an equivalent half thickness. We show that his analysis was accurate for the materials in his system. In general, however, and specifically with regard to modern thermopiles, a homogeneous approximation will lead to significant errors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Modeling the thermal responses of the skin surface during hand-object interactions

The objective of this research is to analyze and model the decreases in skin temperature when the hand makes contact with an object at room temperature so that thermal feedback can be incorporated into haptic displays. A thermal model is proposed that predicts the thermal responses of the skin and object surface as well as the heat flux exchanged during hand-object interactions. The model was evaluated by comparing the theoretical predictions of temperature changes to those experimentally measured using an infrared thermal measurement system. The thermal measurement system was designed to overcome the limitations imposed by contact thermal sensors, and was able to measure skin temperature during contact, together with the contact area and contact force. The experimental results indicated that over the pressure range of 0.73-10.98 kPa, changes in skin temperature were well localized to the contact area and were affected by contact pressure. The pressure in turn influenced both thermal contact resistance and blood flow. Over the range of contact forces typically used in manual exploration, blood perfusion and metabolic heat generation do not appear to have a significant effect on the skin's thermal responses. The theoretical predictions and the measured data were consistent in characterizing the time course and amplitude of the skin temperature change during contact with differences typically being less than 1 degrees C between the two for pressures greater than 4 kPa. These findings indicate that the proposed thermal model is able to characterize and predict the skin temperature responses during hand-object interactions and could be used in a thermal display that simulates the properties of different materials.     

Realizing High‐Ranged Out‐of‐Plane ZTs in N‐Type SnSe Crystals through Promoting Continuous Phase Transition

Thermoelectric technology enables direct conversion between heat and electricity. The conversion efficiency of a thermoelectric device is determined by the average dimensionless figure of merit ZT_ave. Here, a record high ZT_ave of ≈1.34 in the range of 300–723 K in n‐type SnSe based crystals is reported. The remarkable thermoelectric performance derives from the high power factor and the reduced thermal conductivity in the whole temperature range. The high power factor is realized by promoting the continuous phase transition in SnSe crystals through alloying PbSe, which results in a higher symmetry of the crystal structure and the correspondingly modified electronic band structure. Moreover, PbSe alloying induces mass and strain fluctuations, which enables the suppression of thermal transport. These findings provide a new strategy to enhance the thermoelectric performance for the continuous phase transition materials.     

Simulation of heat conduction in nanocomposite using energy-conserving dissipative particle dynamics

We report on the simulation of heat conduction in nanocomposite by using a novel mesoscopic particle method, the energy-conserving dissipative particle dynamics (eDPD) method. The original eDPD method is extended to account for the interfacial thermal resistance occurs at the angstrom-wide interface between materials, and we also investigated the choice of time step in eDPD simulations. For nanocomposite with randomly dispersed nanoparticles, the eDPD simulations predict that the thermal conductivity of matrix material can be enhanced by embedding high thermal conductivity nanoparticles, but the effectiveness of such a strategy diminishes as the interfacial thermal resistance between the nanoparticle and matrix material increases. These results are in quantitative agreement with the classical Maxwell–Garnett model. Further simulations indicate that the enhancement of thermal conductivity can be affected by the alignment of nanoparticles with respect to the temperature gradient, which cannot be predicted by the classical models. These simulation results indicate that eDPD method can be a versatile method for studying thermal transport in heterogeneous materials and complex systems.     

Numerical study on the thawing process of biological tissue induced by laser irradiation

Most of the laser applications in medicine and biology involve thermal effects. The laser-tissue thermal interaction has therefore received more and more attentions in recent years. However, previous works were mainly focused on the case of laser heating on normal tissues (37 degrees C or above). To date, little is known on the mechanisms of laser heating on the frozen biological tissues. Several latest experimental investigations have demonstrated that lasers have great potentials in tissue cryopreservation. But the lack of theoretical interpretation limits its further application in this area. The present paper proposes a numerical model for the thawing of biological tissues caused by laser irradiation. The Monte Carlo approach and the effective heat capacity method are, respectively, employed to simulate the light propagation and solid-liquid phase change heat transfer. The proposed model has four important features: (1) the tissue is considered as a nonideal material, in which phase transition occurs over a wide temperature range; (2) the solid phase, transition phase, and the liquid phase have different thermophysical properties; (3) the variations in optical properties due to phase-change are also taken into consideration; and (4) the light distribution is changing continually with the advancement of the thawing fronts. To this end, 15 thawing-front geometric configurations are presented for the Monte Carlo simulation. The least-squares parabola fitting technique is applied to approximate the shape of the thawing front. And then, a detailed algorithm of calculating the photon reflection/refraction behaviors at the thawing front is described. Finally, we develop a coupled light/heat transport solution procedure for the laser-induced thawing of frozen tissues. The proposed model is compared with three test problems and good agreement is obtained. The calculated results show that the light reflectance/transmittance at the tissue surface are continually changing with the progression of the thawing fronts and that lasers provide a new heating method superior to conventional heating through surface conduction because it can achieve a uniform volumetric heating. Parametric studies are performed to test the influences of the optical properties of tissue on the thawing process. The proposed model is rather general in nature and therefore can be applied to other nonbiological problems as long as the materials are absorbing and scattering media.     

A parametric study of thermal therapy of skin tissue

A thermal therapy for cancer in skin tissue is numerically investigated using three bioheat conduction models, namely Pennes, thermal wave and dual-phase lag models. A laser is applied at the surface of the skin for cancer ablation, and the temperature and thermal damage distributions are predicted using the three bioheat models and two different modeling approaches of the laser effect. The first one is a prescribed surface heat flux, in which the tissue is assumed to be highly absorbent, while the second approach is a volumetric heat source, which is reasonable if the scattering and absorption skin effects are of similar magnitude. The finite volume method is applied to solve the governing bioheat equation. A parametric study is carried out to ascertain the effects of the thermophysical properties of the cancer on the thermal damage. The temperature distributions predicted by the three models exhibit significant differences, even though the temperature distributions are similar when the laser is turned off. The type of bioheat model has more influence on the predicted thermal damage than the type of modeling approach used for the laser. The phase lags of heat flux and temperature gradient have an important influence on the results, as well as the thermal conductivity of the cancer. In contrast, the uncertainty in the specific heat and blood perfusion rate has a minor influence on the thermal damage.     

Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics study on radial thermal conductivity and thermal rectification of graphene

In the present study, the radial thermal rectification and thermal conductivity of the graphene were investigated by non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulation and then corrected by quantum correction to make it closer to the fact. The Optimised three-body Tersoff potential is employed in order to simulate the interactions between the carbon atoms in the graphene sheet. A circular region in the centre and the one at the graphene edge are selected as hot and cold bath to generate radial temperature gradient. It is observed that the heat current passes through radially inward direction than outward with the same temperature gradient and hence there is a radial thermal rectification in graphene. Also, temperature distribution and heat flux are theoretically introduced as a function of distance from the graphene centre and then it is confirmed by the molecular dynamics simulation data. Finally, the influence of temperature gradient and size of graphene on radial thermal rectification and the impact of size on the radial thermal conductivity is investigated.     

Cattaneo-Christov Heat Flux Model for MHD Three-Dimensional Flow of Maxwell Fluid over a Stretching Sheet

This letter investigates the MHD three-dimensional flow of upper-convected Maxwell (UCM) fluid over a bi-directional stretching surface by considering the Cattaneo-Christov heat flux model. This model has tendency to capture the characteristics of thermal relaxation time. The governing partial differential equations even after employing the boundary layer approximations are non linear. Accurate analytic solutions for velocity and temperature distributions are computed through well-known homotopy analysis method (HAM). It is noticed that velocity decreases and temperature rises when stronger magnetic field strength is accounted. Penetration depth of temperature is a decreasing function of thermal relaxation time. The analysis for classical Fourier heat conduction law can be obtained as a special case of the present work. To our knowledge, the Cattaneo-Christov heat flux model law for three-dimensional viscoelastic flow problem is just introduced here.     

Redetermination of the pressure dependence of the lipid bilayer phase transition.

The effect of pressure on the phase transition temperature for the dipalmitoyllecithin bilayer was redetermined by following the volume change accompanying the transition. These measurements were carried out isothermally with the transition from the ordered to the disordered phase induced by decreasing the pressure. This contrasts with our previous measurements which were carried out at constant pressure and increasing temperature. The transition at every temperature was sharp and confirmed our previous observation that the volume change associated with the transition (0.033 mL g-1) is invariant with pressure. However, our present measurements, in contrast to our previous results, indicate that dP m/dTm at all pressures is in agreement with the 1 atm value of delta H/Tm delta V within experimental error where Tm and Pm are the temperature and pressure of the phase transition, respectively. These results, which are now in agreement with all other known pressure data, indicate that the entropy change associated with the transition is invariant with pressure.     

The evolution of thermal performance can constrain dispersal during range shifting

Organisms can cope with changing temperature under climate change by either adapting to the temperature at which they perform best and/or by dispersing to more benign locations. The evolution of a new thermal niche during range shifting is, however, expected to be strongly constrained by genetic load because spatial sorting is known to induce fast evolution of dispersal. To broaden our understanding of this interaction, we studied the joint evolution of dispersal and thermal performance curves (TPCs) of a population during range shifting by applying an individual-based spatially explicit model. Always, TPCs adapted to the local thermal conditions. Remarkably, this adaptation coincided with an evolution of dispersal at the shifting range front being equally high or lower than at the trailing edge. This optimal strategy reduces genetic load and highlights that evolutionary dynamics during range shifting change when crucial traits such as dispersal and thermal performance jointly evolve.     

The combined effects of reactant kinetics and enzyme stability explain the temperature dependence of metabolic rates

A mechanistic understanding of the response of metabolic rate to temperature is essential for understanding thermal ecology and metabolic adaptation. Although the Arrhenius equation has been used to describe the effects of temperature on reaction rates and metabolic traits, it does not adequately describe two aspects of the thermal performance curve (TPC) for metabolic rate—that metabolic rate is a unimodal function of temperature often with maximal values in the biologically relevant temperature range and that activation energies are temperature dependent. We show that the temperature dependence of metabolic rate in ectotherms is well described by an enzyme‐assisted Arrhenius (EAAR) model that accounts for the temperature‐dependent contribution of enzymes to decreasing the activation energy required for reactions to occur. The model is mechanistically derived using the thermodynamic rules that govern protein stability. We contrast our model with other unimodal functions that also can be used to describe the temperature dependence of metabolic rate to show how the EAAR model provides an important advance over previous work. We fit the EAAR model to metabolic rate data for a variety of taxa to demonstrate the model's utility in describing metabolic rate TPCs while revealing significant differences in thermodynamic properties across species and acclimation temperatures. Our model advances our ability to understand the metabolic and ecological consequences of increases in the mean and variance of temperature associated with global climate change. In addition, the model suggests avenues by which organisms can acclimate and adapt to changing thermal environments. Furthermore, the parameters in the EAAR model generate links between organismal level performance and underlying molecular processes that can be tested for in future work.     

Thermographic stress analysis in cortical bone.

Under adiabatic (or near adiabatic) conditions a volumetric change in an elastic material will produce a corresponding change in temperature. Based upon this principle, thermographic stress analysis (TSA) measures changes in surface heat flux (which are related to changes in surface temperature) and relates them to a coupled form of strains or stresses. To demonstrate the feasibility of using this technique for biomechanical applications, we thermographically measured heat flux from loaded specimens of cortical bone and correlated the results with strain gage data. Regular parallelepipeds were cut from the cortex of bovine femora and loaded sinusoidally at 20 Hz. At this rate of loading, mechanically induced changes in surface temperature could be sampled (via heat flux) prior to a measureable attenuation of the thermoelastic effect. Correlation coefficients demonstrated a significant linear relationship between TSA and measured and computed mechanical parameters (stress, strain, first strain invariant, and strain energy density). TSA therefore appears to be a promising technology for experimental stress analysis in cortical bone.     

Thermal unfolding of tetrameric melittin: comparison with the molten globule state of cytochrome c.

Whereas melittin at micromolar concentrations is unfolded under conditions of low salt at neutral pH, it transforms to a tetrameric alpha-helical structure under several conditions, such as high peptide concentration, high anion concentration, or alkaline pH. The anion- and pH-dependent stabilization of the tetrameric structure is similar to that of the molten globule state of several acid-denatured proteins, suggesting that tetrameric melittin might be a state similar to the molten globule state. To test this possibility, we studied the thermal unfolding of tetrameric melittin using far-UV CD and differential scanning calorimetry. The latter technique revealed a broad but distinct heat absorption peak. The heat absorption curves were consistent with the unfolding transition observed by CD and were explainable by a 2-state transition mechanism between the tetrameric alpha-helical state and the monomeric unfolded state. From the peptide or salt-concentration dependence of unfolding, the heat capacity change upon unfolding was estimated to be 5 kJ (mol of tetramer)-1 K-1 at 30 degrees C and decreased with increasing temperature. The observed change in heat capacity was much smaller than that predicted from the crystallographic structure (9.2 kJ (mol of tetramer)-1 K-1), suggesting that the hydrophobic residues of tetrameric melittin in solution are exposed in comparison with the crystallographic structure. However, the results also indicate that the structure is more ordered than that of a typical molten globule state. We consider that the conformation is intermediate between the molten globule state and the native state of globular proteins.     

Resilience to extreme temperature events: acclimation capacity and body condition of a polymorphic fish in response to thermal stress

Considerable attention has been given to the potential impacts of global climate change on biodiversity. In the present study, we combine understudied themes by examining the ability of a freshwater fish (polymorphic for heat‐sensitivity) to respond to short‐term thermal stress mimicking an extreme temperature event. We simultaneously measured the effect of thermal stress on the body condition of heat‐sensitive and heat‐tolerant forms to evaluate an existing hypothesis regarding the underlying mechanism by which temperature affects the maintenance of genetic variation in this species. Surprisingly, the heat‐sensitive allelic variant increased in body condition equally as much as a heat‐tolerant variant under acute heat stress. More importantly, the heat‐sensitive variant exhibited a significant response to thermal stress, with an upward shift of greater than 2 °C in critical thermal maximum. Our findings suggest a complexity to the relationship between thermal stress and male body condition that may depend on an interaction with other factors such as resource level. Although the evolutionary fate of species with respect to climate change is typically evaluated in terms long‐term adaptive response, short‐term selection events could drastically reduce fitness and reduce evolutionary potential. Our results suggest that heat‐sensitive species may have considerably greater resilience to the short‐term, extreme perturbations to the environment that are expected under climate change. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 111 , 504–510.     

A molecular dynamics simulation on the effect of different parameters on thermal resistance of graphene-argon interface

Molecular dynamics simulations of argon molecules confined between two parallel graphene sheets are carried out to investigate the parameters affecting heat transfer and thermal properties. These parameters include wall–fluid interaction strength, fluid density and wall temperature. For constant wall temperature simulations, we show that the first two parameters have influence on near-wall fluid density. As a result, the heat transfer at wall–fluid interfaces and thus through argon molecules across the domain will change. Also, we demonstrate that variations in wall temperature rarely affects the density profiles of argon molecules next to the walls. Therefore, in these cases, the variations in thermal resistance at the interface is most dominantly due to wall temperature itself. To analyse the results, the density and temperature profiles and also other parameters including heat flux and temperature gradient of bulk of argon molecules, Kapitza length and argon thermal conductivity are considered. The Kapitza length describes thermal resistance at liquid–solid interface. According to the results, increasing wall–fluid interaction strength leads to greater molecular aggregation of argon molecules near the walls and, consequently, decreasing the Kapitza length. Furthermore, higher fluid density leads to greater thermal resistance at wall–fluid interactions and therefore greater temperature jumps are observed in temperature profiles.