No Arabic abstract
Adding thermal conductivity enhancements to increase thermal power in solid-liquid phase-change thermal energy storage modules compromises volumetric energy density and often times reduces the mass and volume of active phase change material (PCM) by well over half. In this study, a new concept of building thermal energy storage modules using high-conductivity, solid-solid, shape memory alloys is demonstrated to eliminate this trade-off and enable devices that have both high heat transfer rate and high thermal capacity. Nickel titanium, Ni50.28Ti49.36, was solution heat treated and characterized using differential scanning calorimetry and Xenon Flash to determine transformation temperature (78deg-C), latent heat (183 kJm-3), and thermal conductivity in the Austenite and Martensite phases (12.92/12.64 Wm-1K-1). Four parallel-plate thermal energy storage demonstrators were designed, fabricated, and tested in a thermofluidic test setup. These included a baseline sensible heating module (aluminum), a conventional solid-liquid PCM module (aluminum/1-octadecanol), an all-solid-solid PCM module (Ni50.28Ti49.36), and a composite solid-solid/solid-liquid PCM module (Ni50.28Ti49.36/1-octadecanol). By using high-conductivity solid-solid PCMs, and eliminating the need for encapsulants and conductivity enhancements, we are able to demonstrate a 1.73-3.38 times improvement in volumetric thermal capacity and a 2.03-3.21 times improvement in power density as compared to the conventional approaches. These experimental results are bolstered by analytical models to explain the observed heat transfer physics and reveal a 5.86 times improvement in thermal time constant. This work demonstrates the ability to build high-capacity and high-power thermal energy storage modules using multifunctional shape memory alloys and opens the door for leap ahead improvement in thermal energy storage performance.
The existed theories and methods for calculating interfacial thermal conductance of solid-solid interface lead to diverse values that deviate from experimental measurements. In this letter, We propose a model to estimate the ITC at high temperature without comprehensive calculations, where the interface between two dissimilar solids can be treated as an amorphous thin layer and the coordination number density across interface becomes a key parameter. Our model predicts that the ITCs of various interfaces at 300K are in a narrow range: 10$^{7}$W m$^{-2}$K$^{-1}$ $sim $10$^{9}$ W m$^{-2}$ K$^{-1}$, which is in good agreement with the experimental measurement.
We propose a mathematical description of crystal structure: underlying translational periodicity together with the distinct atomic positions up to the symmetry operations in the unit cell. It is consistent with the international table of crystallography. By the Cauchy-Born hypothesis, such a description can be integrated with the theory of continuum mechanics to calculate a derived crystal structure produced by solid-solid phase transformation. In addition, we generalize the expressions for orientation relationship between the parent lattice and the derived lattice. The derived structure rationalizes the lattice parameters and the general equivalent atomic positions that assist the indexing process of X-ray diffraction analysis for low symmetry martensitic materials undergoing phase transformation. The analysis is demonstrated in a CuAlMn shape memory alloy. From its austenite phase (L2_1 face-centered cubic structure), we identify that the derived martensitic structure has the orthorhombic symmetry Pmmm with derived lattice parameters a_dv = 4.36491 AA, b_dv = 5.40865 AA and c_dv = 4.2402 AA, by which the complicated X-ray Laue diffraction pattern can be well indexed, and the orientation relationship can be verified.
We describe a novel approach for the rational design and synthesis of self-assembled periodic nanostructures using martensitic phase transformations. We demonstrate this approach in a thin film of perovskite SrSnO3 with reconfigurable periodic nanostructures consisting of regularly spaced regions of sharply contrasted dielectric properties. The films can be designed to have different periodicities and relative phase fractions via chemical doping or strain engineering. The dielectric contrast within a single film can be tuned using temperature and laser wavelength, effectively creating a variable photonic crystal. Our results show the realistic possibility of designing large-area self-assembled periodic structures using martensitic phase transformations with the potential of implementing built-to-order nanostructures for tailored optoelectronic functionalities.
We describe the microstructure, shape and dynamics of growth of a droplet of martensite nucleating in a parent austenite during a solid-solid transformation, using a Landau theory written in terms of conventional affine, elastic deformations and {em non-affine} degrees of freedom. Non-affineness, $phi$, serves as a source of strain incompatibility and screens long-ranged elastic interactions. It is produced wherever the local stress exceeds a threshold and anneals diffusively thereafter. A description in terms of $phi$ is inevitable when the separation between defect pairs, possibly generated during the course of the transformation, is small. Using a variational calculation, we find three types of stable solutions ({hv I}, {hv II} and {hv III}) for the structure of the product droplet depending on the scaled mobilities of $phi$ parallel and perpendicular to the parent-product interface and the stress threshold. In {hv I}, $phi$ is vanishingly small, {hv II} involves large $phi$ localized in regions of high stress within the parent-product interface and {hv III} where $phi$ completely wets the parent-product interface. While width $l$ and size $W$ of the twins follows $lproptosqrt{W}$ in solution {hv I}, this relation does not hold for {hv II} or {hv III}. We obtain a dynamical phase diagram featuring these solutions and argue that they represent specific microstructures such as twinned or dislocated martensites.
The thermal expansion at constant pressure of solid CD$_4$ III is calculated for the low temperature region where only the rotational tunneling modes are essential and the effect of phonons and librons can be neglected. It is found that in mK region there is a giant peak of the negative thermal expansion. The height of this peak is comparable or even exceeds the thermal expansion of solid N$_2$, CO, O$_2$ or CH$_4$ in their triple points. It is shown that like in the case of light methane, the effect of pressure is quite unusual: as evidenced from the pressure dependence of the thermodynamic Gr{u}neisen parameter (which is negative and large in the absolute value), solid CD$_4$ becomes increasingly quantum with rising pressure.