Interfacial thermal transport between offset parallel (10,10) single-wall carbon nanotubes is investigated by molecular dynamics simulation and analytical thermal modeling as a function of nanotube spacing, overlap, and length. A four order of magnitude reduction in interfacial thermal resistance is found as the nanotubes are brought into intimate contact. A reduction is also found for longer n...

Owing to their high thermal conductivities, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising for use in advanced thermal interface materials. While there has been much previous research on the properties of isolated CNTs, there are few thermal data for aligned films of single wall nanotubes. Furthermore, such data for nanotube films do not separate volume from interface thermal resistances. This paper use...

We use molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the early and developed stages of surface condensation. We find that the liquid-vapor and solid-liquid interfacial thermal resistances depend on the properties of solid and fluid, which are time-independent, while the condensate bulk thermal resistance depends on the condensate thickness, which is time-dependent. There exists intrinsic competi...

Thermoelectric recovery is promising for improved efficiency in a broad variety of combustion systems, but thermal interface resistances and the need for scalable and package-compatible thermoelectric materials is a major roadblock. We report progress on six different activities this year, which are all in support of the major goal of novel materials for thermoelectric waste-heat recovery: 1) T...

Thermal conductivity of graphite bipolar plates (BPP) decreases with temperature. Thermal Contact resistance (TCR) between BPP and GDLs decreases with compression. GDL-BPP TCR increases with MPL and PTFE, regardless of the PTFE loading. High PTFE loading, MPL, and BPP outof-flatness increase the TCR dramatically. The graphite BPP-GDL TCR is a dominant resistance in a BPP-GDL assembly. a r t i c...

electrical, structural and morphological properties of ni silicide films formed in ni(pt 4at.% )/si(100) and ni0.6si0.4(pt4at.% )/si(100) structures at various annealing temperatures ranging from 200 to 1000 oc were studied. the ni(pt) and ni0.6si0.4(pt) films with thickness of 15 and 25 nm were deposited by rf magnetron co-sputtering method, respectively.  the annealing process of the structur...

Thermal cues provide information about the thermal properties of an object held in the hand. These cues can be simulated in a thermal display and used to assist in identifying the object. Two experiments were conducted using a thermal display that simulated the cues associated with contact with different materials. The thermal contact model was based on a semi-infinite body model that included ...

Accurate information on heat transfer and temperature distribution in metal foams is necessary for design and modelling of thermal-hydraulic systems incorporating metal foams. The analysis of heat transfer requires determination of the effective thermal conductivity as well as the thermal contact resistance (TCR) associated with the interface between the metal foam and the adjacent surfaces/lay...

The present study reveals that the conventional notion that thermal contact resistance increases with porosity does not necessary hold. It is proved through a mechanistic robust model that, under specific circumstances, the porosities of two contacting bodies attain a critical value beyond which the contact resistance counter-intuitively drops. The model focuses on micro porous layers (MPLs) co...

A new analytical model is developed for predicting thermal contact resistance (TCR) of non-conforming rough contacts of bare solids in a vacuum. Instead of using probability relationships to model the size and number of microcontacts of Gaussian surfaces, a novel approach by employing the “scale analysis methods” is taken. It is shown that the mean size of the microcontacts is proportional to t...