We report a method for quantifying scanning thermal microscopy (SThM) probe-sample thermal interactions in air using a novel temperature calibration device. This new device has been designed, fabricated and characterised using SThM to provide an accurate and spatially variable temperature distribution that can be used as a temperature reference due to its unique design. The device was character...

Thermoelastic deformations can have a significant effect on the contact between elastic bodies, particularly in cases where the thermal boundary conditions at the interface are influenced by the contact pressure. In the classical Hertzian problem, the size of the contact area depends on the magnitude and direction of heat flow between the bodies. Idealized thermal boundary conditions can lead t...

An off-lattice Monte-Carlo simulation was used to study non-isotropic heat conduction in aligned carbon nanotube (CNT)-polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) focusing on the effects of CNT-CNT contact and CNT distribution on heat transfer. CNT-CNT contact significantly affects the effective transport properties of PNCs, including anisotropy ratios, but has not been studied extensively either theoretical...

An analytical approximate solution is developed for predicting the thermal resistance of bolted joints between two square plates . of the same material but different thicknesses. The plates are assumed to have perfectly flat and smooth surfaces, and they are joined by a bolted connection at the center of the square, forming a concentric annular contact region at the interface. The entire surfac...

In Seebeck coefficient metrology, the present diversity in apparatus design, acquisition methodology and contact geometry has resulted in conflicting materials data that complicate the interlaboratory confirmation of reported high efficiency thermoelectric materials. To elucidate the influence of these factors in the measurement of the Seebeck coefficient at high temperature and to identify opt...

A new analytical model for spherical rough contacts, in the form of a set of relationships, is developed and solved numerically. It is shown that the maximum contact pressure is the parameter that specifies the contact pressure distribution. Simple correlations for calculating the maximum contact pressure and the radius of the macrocontact area as functions of the nondimensional parameters are ...

Directional thermal conductivities of aligned carbon nanotube (CNT) polymer nanocomposites were calculated using a random walk simulation with and without inter-CNT contact effects. The CNT contact effect has not been explored for its role in thermal transport, and it is shown here to significantly affect the effective transport properties including anisotropy ratios. The primary focus of the p...