Integrated microthermoelectric cooler for microfluidic channels

Precise fluid temperature control in microfluidic channels is a requirement for many lab-on-a-chip and microreactor devices, especially in biotechnology where most processes are highly temperature sensitive. We demonstrate the concept of a microthermoelectric cooler integrated into a microfluidic channel in order to give rapid and localised fluid cooling. The key aspect of this concept is the use of a second imbedded microfluidic channel that is used as a miniature heat sink. An analytical thermal model has been derived that couples thermoelectric effects with fluid heat-transfer rates from both the hot and cold connections. Using this model, the effect on cooling performance of varying the thermal resistance between the hot and cold connections and the fluid has been quantified, as well as the effect of substrate thermal conductivity. If the substrate thermal conductivity is too high, heat leakage renders the thermoelectric cooler ineffective. The optimum electrical current for cooling has been shown to be a function of the thermal resistance of the heat sink. For thermoelectric coolers there is competition between temperature reduction and cooling power. Using this fact, based on the final fluid temperature required, we have calculated the maximum flow rate that will achieve this. Finally, a prototype integrated microthermoelectric cooler has been fabricated and tested.     

含空心纤维热电复合材料的能量转换效率及力学性能

空心纤维常用于热电复合材料的结构设计。纤维附近产生的不均匀温度场会引起局部热应力集中,威胁材料的可靠性并可能导致结构失效。本文采用圆环夹杂模型,研究了含空心纤维热电复合材料在均匀远场电流和能流作用下的力学响应。基于非线性全耦合的热电本构方程,利用复变函数中的级数法得到了纤维和基体中热电场和应力场的解析解。通过数值算例,分析了空心纤维的传导能力和几何尺寸对温度场、应力场和局部热电转换效率的影响。结果表明：随着空心纤维内径和界面热阻的增大,界面周围的应力场增大,但并不改变应力场的分布趋势。此外,我们发现：温度分布和应力场对几何参数比对界面热阻更为敏感。     

共线式热电发电机在侧面散热情况下的性能

热电材料是一种环境友好型功能材料,其可以实现热能与电能的相互转化,在热电发电、热电制冷中具有许多应用.传统的热电发电机为$\pi$型结构,要求热电腿的长度相等,在某些情况该结构不利于热电发电机的优化设计.热电发电机在高温工况下会引起强烈的热应力甚至应力集中,从而缩短了其工作寿命.另外,热电发电机的工作温度于环境温度,这样必然会有一部分热量散失到环境中,从而影响热电发电机的性能.针对该现象,本文建立了考虑散热的新型共线式热电发电机模型,该模型的热电腿可以独立进行优化,基于有限元方法,对考虑侧面散热的共线式热电发电机进行了仿真模拟,分析了其在狄利克雷边界条件下的热电性能和力学性能,得到了热电发电机的温度场、电势场、应力场,探究了不同强度的对流散热系数对热电发电机热电性能和力学性能的影响.结果表明,对流散热会降低热电发电机的能量转化效率,当对流换热系数达到~100W/(m$^{2}\cdot$\textcelsius) 时,效率为~0.0479,该值比绝热状态的转化效率0.066 7 低28%.对流散热使热电发电机侧面热损失增加,降低了热应力.在实际应用中,应合理优化设计隔热系统,提高能量的转化效率.      

Wide spectrum solar energy harvesting through an integrated photovoltaic and thermoelectric system

This paper proposes a power system concept that integrates photovoltaic （PV） and thermoelectric （TE） technologies to harvest solar energy from a wide spectral range. By introduction of the ＇spectrum beam splitting＇ technique, short wavelength solar radiation is converted directly into electricity in the PV cells, while the long wavelength segment of the spectrum is used to produce moderate to high temperature thermal energy, which then generates electricity in the TE device. To overcome the intermittent nature of solar radiation, the system is also coupled to a thermal energy storage unit. A systematic analysis of the integrated system is carried out, encompassing the system configuration, material properties, thermal management, and energy storage aspects. We have also attempted to optimize the integrated system. The results indicate that the system configuration and optimization are the most important factors for high overall efficiency.     

Energy storage in fluid saturated porous media subjected to oscillatory flow

Transient thermal effects in a porous medium subjected to oscillatory flow of hot and cold fluid are studied. The governing equations of thermal non-equilibrium model have been numerically solved by a finite difference scheme. The amplitude of temperature fluctuation, a parameter relating to the energy storage, is seen to vary significantly with distance and time. The storage of energy is largely governed by fluid to solid phase thermal storage capacity ratio. Effects arising from changes in bed parameters are discussed.     

刚性圆形压头作用下热电材料半平面的无摩擦接触问题

热电材料可以将热能转化为电能,反之亦然,这一优良的性质将有助于研发更具成本效益的设备和器件。本文研究了刚性圆形压头作用在热电材料半平面的无摩擦接触问题。假定压头为电导体、热导体,且压头压入深度及与材料的接触区域宽度未知。首先求解电场和温度场,利用傅里叶变换得到了电势函数、温度、电流密度和能量通量的解析表达式。然后求解弹性场,利用积分变换和边界条件,将该热弹性接触问题转化为第一类奇异积分方程并数值求解。数值结果讨论了压头半径和热电载荷对法向接触应力、电流强度因子和能量通量强度因子的影响。结果表明,对于圆压头,热电材料的法向电流密度、法向能量通量在接触边缘表现出奇异性,而表面法向接触应力在接触边缘为零。本文建立的研究模型有助于更深层次的了解热电材料的接触行为。     

Thermal fatigue assessment of components made with particulate polymer composites

Many appliance materials are made of PMMA/Si acrylic casting dispersion. In these situations, failure can occur by thermal fatigue induced by severe temperature variations such as alternating flows of cold and hot water. This paper is concerned with the numerical analysis of the thermal stresses in three composites with different volume fractions of filler and particle size. Their trade marks are Asterite, Amatis and Ultra-quartz. Cosmos/M finite element method software was used to study the influence of the cold and hot water temperatures as well as the time of interruption of water flow in the transition between hot and cold water on thermal stresses. Residual stresses were measured and superimposed to thermal stress in fatigue analysis. Typical defects in the corner of holes produced by drilling were predicted using experimental fatigue lives and da/dN curves. Based on predicted defects thermal fatigue assessment of commercially available sinks made with the three materials mentioned earlier was done by taking into account the influence of both cyclic thermal and static residual stresses induced by the manufacturing process.     

Large-eddy simulation in a mixing tee junction: High-order turbulent statistics analysis

This study analyses the mixing and thermal fluctuations induced in a mixing tee junction with circular cross-sections when cold water flowing in a pipe is joined by hot water from a branch pipe. This configuration is representative of industrial piping systems in which temperature fluctuations in the fluid may cause thermal fatigue damage on the walls. Implicit large-eddy simulations (LES) are performed for equal inflow rates corresponding to a bulk Reynolds number Re = 39,080. Two different thermal boundary conditions are studied for the pipe walls; an insulating adiabatic boundary and a conducting steel wall boundary. The predicted flow structures show a satisfactory agreement with the literature. The velocity and thermal fields (including high-order statistics) are not affected by the heat transfer with the steel walls. However, predicted thermal fluctuations at the boundary are not the same between the flow and the solid, showing that solid thermal fluctuations cannot be predicted by the knowledge of the fluid thermal fluctuations alone. The analysis of high-order turbulent statistics provides a better understanding of the turbulence features. In particular, the budgets of the turbulent kinetic energy and temperature variance allows a comparative analysis of dissipation, production and transport terms. It is found that the turbulent transport term is an important term that acts to balance the production. We therefore use a priori tests to evaluate three different models for the triple correlation.     

Simulating hydrodynamics of hot and large Group A particle systems at cold conditions to obtain data for scale-up

Scaling laws based on the concept of dimensional similitude are proposed to simulate the hydrodynamics of hot and large particle systems at conditions of cold and small particle systems. This technique uses the concept of dimensional similitude to accomplish this by maintaining certain dimensional groups constant in the large, hot and small, cold systems. However, there are certain limitations with this technique. One of them is that the particle size in the small, cold system is usually smaller than in the large, hot system. Because particle size is such a dominant parameter in fluidized systems, this can certainly affect the simulation.
An alternative method of simulating hot hydrodynamics in ambient-temperature Group A particle systems has been proposed. In this method, the same calculated drag force is maintained between the two systems. The drag force is varied by changing the gas density of the cold system so that it matches the drag force in the hot system.     

Turbulence Statistics and Scalar Transport in Highly-Sheared Premixed Flames

This paper describes recent progress in the analysis of the nature of turbulent premixed flames stabilised behind an axisymmetric baffle which are of fundamental interest in the development of new and cleaner combustion systems. The work includes the use of laser-based diagnostics for velocity and temperature measurements, which are extended to the analysis of turbulence statistics, including the energy spectrum and typical length scales in a reacting shear layer. The results provided experimental evidence of the extension of the flamelet regime beyond the Klimov--Williams criterion. Arguments based on the shape of the weighted-joint-probability distributions of axial velocity and temperature fluctuations show that the counter-gradient nature of heat flux is associated with the preferential deceleration of products of combustion in relation to the cold reactants.     

Finite Element Simulation of Hot Nanoindentation in Vacuum

A finite element model is developed to investigate technical issues associated with hot nanoindentation measurements in vacuum, e.g. thermal expansion-induced drift and temperature variations at the contact region between the cold indenter tip and hot specimen. With heat conduction properly accounted for, the model is able to reasonably reproduce experimental indentation measurements on fused silica and copper—two materials with significantly different thermal and mechanical properties—at several temperatures. Temperature and loading rate effects on thermal drift are established using this model and an analytical expression for predicting thermal drift is numerically calibrated. The model also captures details of the indentation process that are not directly accessible experimentally, and reaffirms the need for operational refinements in order to acquire high temperature indentation data of high quality, especially in a vacuum environment. Such information can guide experiments aimed at understanding thermally-activated phenomena in materials.     

A mathematical model and numerical method for thermoelectric DNA sequencing

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are single base pair variations within the genome that are important indicators of genetic predisposition towards specific diseases. This study explores the feasibility of SNP detection using a thermoelectric sequencing method that measures the heat released when DNA polymerase inserts a deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate into a DNA strand. We propose a three-dimensional mathematical model that governs the DNA sequencing device with a reaction zone that contains DNA template/primer complex immobilized to the surface of the lower channel wall. The model is then solved numerically. Concentrations of reactants and the temperature distribution are obtained. Results indicate that when the nucleoside is complementary to the next base in the DNA template, polymerization occurs lengthening the complementary polymer and releasing thermal energy with a measurable temperature change, implying that the thermoelectric conceptual device for sequencing DNA may be feasible for identifying specific genes in individuals.     

Operational characteristics of miniature loop heat pipe with flat evaporator

Loop heat pipes are heat transfer devices whose operating principle is based on the evaporation and condensation of a working fluid, and which use the capillary pumping forces to ensure the fluid circulation. A series of tests have been carried out with a miniature loop heat pipe (mLHP) with flat evaporator and fin-and-tube type condenser. The loop is made of pure copper with stainless mesh wick and methanol as the working fluid. Detailed study is conducted on the start-up reliability of the mLHP at high as well as low heat loads. During the testing of mLHP under step power cycles, the thermal response presented by the loop to achieve steady state is very short. At low heat loads, temperature oscillations are observed throughout the loop. The amplitudes and frequencies of these fluctuations are large at evaporator wall and evaporator inlet. It is expected that the extent and nature of the oscillations occurrence is dependent on the thermal and hydrodynamic conditions inside the compensation chamber. The thermal resistance of the mLHP lies between 0.29 and 3.2°C/W. The effects of different liquid charging ratios and the tilt angles to the start-up and the temperature oscillation are studied in detail.     

Integrating thermal-concentration smoothed profile with lattice Boltzmann methods for simulating sedimentation of nonisothermal circular particles

A thermal-concentration smoothed profile-lattice Boltzmann method is proposed to study the effect of the concentration field on the dynamic behavior of nonisothermal cylindrical particles during the sedimentation process. The velocity, temperature, and concentration equations are solved using the lattice Boltzmann method. Moreover, the smoothed profile method is employed to enforce the nonslip boundary condition as well as constant temperature and constant concentration boundary conditions at the particles surfaces. Moreover, the Boussinesq approximation is used to couple the velocities, temperatures, and concentrations fields. The proposed combined method is validated by comparing the present numerical results with those found in the literature, showing good consistency. Then, the effect of the concentration buoyancy on the behavior of nonisothermal particles is discussed. In addition, the effect of Prandtl, Schmidt, and thermal Grashof numbers on the settling process is investigated. The results show that, by adding the effect of concentration, the maximum settling velocity of hot particles is reduced more relative to the cold ones; accordingly, the cold particles are settled faster than the hot ones. Finally, the sedimentation of two particles in a container at high thermal Grashof is investigated. It is shown that, at high thermal Grashof, there is an intense competition between the buoyancy force and gravity for the hot particles. The buoyancy flow generated leads to the reversal of the drafting-kissing-tumbling motion of the hot particles, making the particles move upward.     

Numerical Study of Turbulent Jet Ignition in a Lean Premixed Configuration

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a hot combustion product jet interacting with a lean premixed hydrogen-air coflow are conducted to fundamentally investigate turbulent jet ignition (TJI) in a three-dimensional configuration. TJI is an efficient method for initiating and controlling combustion in ultra-lean combustion systems. Fully compressible gas dynamics and species equations are solved with high order finite difference methods. The hydrogen-air reaction is simulated with a reliable detailed chemical kinetics mechanism. The physical processes involved in the TJI-assisted combustion are investigated by considering the flame heat release, temperature, species concentrations, vorticity, and Baroclinc torque. The complex turbulent flame and flow structures are delineated in three main: i) hot product jet, ii) burned-mixed, and iii) flame zones. In the TJI-assisted combustion, the flow structures and the flame features such as flame speed, temperature, and species distribution are found to be quite different than those in “standard” turbulent premixed combustion due to the existence of a high energy turbulent hot product jet. The flow structures and statistics are also found to be different than those normally seen in non-isothermal non-reacting jets.     

Direct numerical simulations of thermocapillary migration of a droplet attached to a solid wall

This paper is designated to gain further insight into the physical mechanisms of thermal droplet actuation on a wall through direct numerical simulation. Classical theory states that free droplets in a nonuniform temperature field always move towards the hot side. However, when attaching a droplet to a wall with a nonuniform temperature gradient, lubrication theory explains how such a droplet moves towards the colder side. This paper aims at further investigating and clarifying the physical mechanisms and acting forces in the environment of a nonuniform temperature field and offers some explanations. For the numerical simulations of a droplet attached to a wall with a linear temperature gradient and larger contact angles, the full Navier–Stokes equations and energy equation are solved in a Volume of Fluid framework. The solver is extended with a dynamic contact angle treatment and thoroughly validated. The droplet motion is studied both in two and three dimensions, where a movement towards the cold and the warm side can be observed. The forces acting in such a setting are identified and interpreted. A decomposition of the jump conditions shows that the tangential stress due to the temperature dependent surface tension alone would lead to a motion towards the cold side, whereas the normal component alone would move the droplet to the opposite direction. The differences between two- and three-dimensional simulations show that the problem at hand is clearly three-dimensional.     

Particle morphology and packing effects on the shock loading of powders

A physically based model for the shock Hugoniot of a powdered material is described which allows separate identification of the cold and thermal contributions to pressure and specific internal energy. Special features of this model are provision for the effects of porosity on the stress state and an empirically determined cold loading contribution to pressure. The model was tested against published Hugoniot data for iron and gave excellent agreement for shock pressures ranging from low to high values.This shock Hugoniot was used to explore the shocked state of 4 samples of iron powder derived from commercially available material. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of powder particle characteristics and initial starting densities on the shocked state.The powder samples investigated had a range of morphologies and sizes. Powders with either a large shape factor or high internal friction, as determined in shear cell experiments, exhibited a higher stiffness in the cold loading curve. In the shocked state, this translated into a higher cold component of pressure and energy than found in the other powders.The effect of initial powder density was studied by applying the Hugoniot model to two impact initiated shock loadings, one for a stainless steel flyer impacting at 0.5 km/s and one at the higher velocity of 2.0 km/s. Both were applied to iron powder targets preloaded to a range of initial densities. For a given impact event, the proportion of shock energy in the thermal mode was found to decrease with increasing initial density. This decrease was more pronounced at higher shock strengths. As a result of the decreasing component of thermal energy with higher initial density, there was a reduction in the continuum temperature behind the shock. However, the corresponding increase in the component of cold energy with the falling relative contribution from the thermal energy lead to increasing density behind the shock suggesting that there is a trade off in terms of temperature and density achievable with a given impact event.This article was processed using Springer-Verlag T_EX Shock Waves macro package 1.0 and the AMS fonts, developed by the American Mathematical Society.     

从数量级分析看含能材料的临界热能密度

从能量角度用数量级估计的方法分析数种重要的感度试验数据,提出临界热能密度的概念。对几种公认的冲击作用下热点形成机理,估计其吸收的热能密度能否达到临界值。从化学分解动力学的角度分析临界热能密度的本质。初步认为临界热能密度可能是含能材料引发的本征参量。     

Experimental on the liquid cooling system with thermoelectric for personal computer

In the present experimental investigation, the liquid cooling in the micro channel fin heat sink with and without thermoelectric for central processor unit (CPU) of personal computer. The micro channel heat sinks with two different channel height are fabricated from the aluminum with the length, the width and the base thickness of 28, 40, 2?mm respectively. The de-ionized water is used as coolant. Effects of channel height, coolant flow rate, and run condition of PC on the CPU temperature are considered. The liquid cooling in micro-rectangular fin heat sink with thermoelectric is compared with the other cooling techniques. The thermoelectric has a significant effect on the CPU cooling of PC. The experiments are performed at no load and full load conditions within 60?min after steady state, which the mass flow rate are 0.023, 0.017 and 0.01?kg/s. The results heat transfer rate increase with increasing coolant flow rate and higher channel. When comparing with the other cooling system, cooling system with thermoelectric gives the highest efficiency. However, thermoelectric has the high or low heat transfer rate from heat rejected and cooling capacity conditions.     

Numerical investigation of premixed combustion in a porous burner with integrated heat exchanger

In this paper, we perform a numerical analysis of a two-dimensional axisymmetric problem arising in premixed combustion in a porous burner with integrated heat exchanger. The physical domain consists of two zones, porous and heat exchanger zones. Two dimensional Navier–Stokes equations, gas and solid energy equations, and chemical species transport equations are solved and heat release is described by a multistep kinetics mechanism. The solid matrix is modeled as a gray medium, and the finite volume method is used to solve the radiative transfer equation to calculate the local radiation source/sink in the solid phase energy equation. Special attention is given to model heat transfer between the hot gas and the heat exchanger tube. Thus, the corresponding terms are added to the energy equations of the flow and the solid matrix. Gas and solid temperature profiles and species mole fractions on the burner centerline, predicted 2D temperature fields, species concentrations and streamlines are presented. Calculated results for temperature profiles are compared to experimental data. It is shown that there is good agreement between the numerical solutions and the experimental data and it is concluded that the developed numerical program is an excellent tool to investigate combustion in porous burner.