A TO-based intelligent thermal concentrator considering thermal protection

TO (transformation optics)-based transformation thermotics offers an advanced way to design the propagation path of heat flux at will, which is valuable for the regulation and utilization of thermal energy. Thermal concentrator as one of the typical representatives has great application potential in fuel cells, solar thermal collectors, heat storages, and other energy related devices due to its advantageous functionality and efficiency. However, most existing TO-based thermal concentrators only perform the same thermal rectification effect in different environments, which is limited in industrial applications and insufficient to meet diverse requirements. In this work, based on the improved temperature-dependent transformation thermotics theory and taking thermal protection issue into account, we designed an intelligent thermal concentrator, which can spontaneously exhibit different working states corresponding to different environmental conditions; investigation and optimization of structural sensitivity were also carried out toward two impact factors. In addition, the proposed model was theoretically realized referring to wedge-like shaped materials, and two thermal control apparatus were enumerated as extensions of current work. The proposed intelligent thermal concentrator possessing nonlinear characteristic as well as active functionality can provide reference for energy collection equipment in industrial application, and the revealed methodology can be expanded to design other types of TO-based devices in thermal even multi-physical field.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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