Analytical Solution of Heat Exchange in Typical Electrocaloric Devices

Most of electrocaloric devices reported so far can be simplified as a multilayer structure in which thermal source and sink are different materials at two ends. The thermal conduction in the multilayer structure is the key for the performance of the devices. In this paper, the analytical solutions for the thermal conduction in a multilayer structure with four layers are introduced. The middle two layers are electrocaloric materials. The analytical solutions are also simplified for a hot/cold plate with two sides being different media - a typical case for thermal treatment of materials. The analytical solutions include series with infinite terms. It is proved that these series are convergent so the sum of a series can be calculated using the first N terms. The equation for calculating the N is introduced. Based on the case study, it is found that the N is usually a small number, mostly less than 40 and rarely more than 100. The issues related to the application of the analytical solutions for the simulation of real electrocaloric devices are discussed, which includes the usage of multilayer ceramic capacitor, influence of electrodes, and characterization of thin film.

Evaluation of stability and robustness of poly-Si resistors with different dopant concentrations

The stability and robustness of lightly and highly doped poly-Si resistors were evaluated. These resistors exhibited distinct electrical resistance properties and temperature dependences, which can be explained through the grain and grain boundary conduction mechanisms. The resistance shift saturated under the low current stress condition, but continued to increase under the high current stress condition. A novel carrier trapping density model was proposed to explain this behavior. A generalized free energy model that considered stress temperature and stress current dependences was proposed to account for the stability lifetime of a poly-Si resistor based on the resistance shift criterion. Robustness evaluation with transmission line pulse test revealed that the breakdown current exhibited a pulse width dependence which was further explained by a thermal- conduction energy model.

Verification of a Specialized Hydrodynamic Simulation Code for Modeling Deflagration and Detonation of High Explosives

A specialized hydrodynamic simulation code has been developed to simulate one-dimensional unsteady problems involving the detonation and deflagration of high explosives. To model all the relevant physical processes in these problems, a code is required to simulate compressible hydrodynamics, unsteady thermal conduction and chemical reactions with complex rate laws. Several verification exercises are presented which test the implementation of these capabilities. The code also requires models for physics processes such as equations of state and conductivity for pure materials and mixtures as well as rate laws for chemical reactions. Additional verification tests are required to ensure these models are implemented correctly. Though this code is limited in the types of problems it can simulate, its computationally efficient formulation allow it to be used in calibration studies for reactive burn models for high explosives.

Thermal Cloak: Theory, Experiment and Application

In the past two decades, owing to the development of metamaterials and the theoretical tools of transformation optics and the scattering cancellation method, a plethora of unprecedented functional devices, especially invisibility cloaks, have been experimentally demonstrated in various fields, e.g., electromagnetics, acoustics, and thermodynamics. Since the first thermal cloak was theoretically reported in 2008 and experimentally demonstrated in 2012, great progress has been made in both theory and experiment. In this review, we report the recent advances in thermal cloaks, including the theoretical designs, experimental realizations, and potential applications. The three areas are classified according to the different mechanisms of heat transfer, namely, thermal conduction, thermal convection, and thermal radiation. We also provide an outlook toward the challenges and future directions in this fascinating area.