Effects of carbonaceous conductive fillers on electrical and thermal properties of asphalt-matrix conductive composites

The relationship between thermal/electrical conductivity enhancement in asphalt-matrix mixtures and the properties of filling conductive particles is studied. The thermal properties with filling the carbon fiber, graphite conductive particles in asphalt-matrix mixtures are investigated. Based on the generalized effective medium theory （ EMT ）, the effective thermal and electrical conductivity of carbon fiber/asphalt and graphite/asphalt composites are theoretically elucidated. The theoretical results are found to be in reasonably well agreement with the experimental data. Moreover, the theoretical and experimental results show that the large-aspect-ratio shape of particles can help to achieve a large enhancement of effective conductivity, and the use of disk-like high conductivity particles can limit the additive contents for preserving the volumetric properties and mechanical properties of asphalt composites. The generalized effective medium theory model can be used for predicting the thermal and electrical properties of asphaltmatrix composites, which is still available for most of the thermal/electrical modifications in two-phase composites.

Effects of TiO2 nanoparticles on thermal conductivity of heat transfer oil

There is a lack of thermophysical data of heat transfer oil and nano-oil in the high temperature range of 50-300 ℃ for designing and developing heat transfer oil furnace and its heating systems. In the present study, the thermal conductivity values of heat transfer oil and TiO2 nano-oil in the above high temperature range were measured by a newly developed high-temperature thermal conductivity meter. Based on the principle of least square method, the thermal conductivity values obtained from experiments were fitted separately, and the correlation between thermal conductivity and temperature of heat transfer oil and TiO2 nano-oil was obtained. The results show that the thermal conductivity and the increased percentage of thermal conductivity of TiO2 nano-oil are proportional to the increase of particle size and mass fraction of nanoparticles, but thermal conductivity is in reverse proportion to the increase of temperature and the increased percentage of thermal conductivity is less affected by temperature.

Comparison on Thermal Conductivity and Permeability of Granular and Consolidated Activated Carbon for Refrigeration

This paper focuses on the development of three types of activated carbon （AC） adsorbents, i.e. granular AC, consolidated AC with chemical binder, and consolidated AC with expanded natural graphite （ENG）. Their thermal conductivity was investigated with the steady-state heat source method and the permeability was tested with nitrogen as the gas source. Results show that the thermal conductivity of granular AC with different sizes al-most maintains a constant at 0.36 W-（m.K）-＇, while the value modestly increases to 0.40 W.（m.K）-＇ for the con- solidated AC with chemical binder. The consolidated AC with ENG at the density of 600 kg. m-3 shows the best heat transfer performance and their thermal conductivity vary from 2.08 W-（m.K）- to 2.61 W. （m.K）-1 according toits fraction of AC. However, the granular AC and consolidated AC with chemical binder show the better permeabil- ity performance than consolidated AC with ENG binder whose permeability changes from 6.98x10-13 m2 to 5.16x10TM m2 and the maximum occurs when the content of AC reaches 71.4% （by mass）. According to the differ- ent thermal properties, the refrigeration application of three types of adsorbents is analyzed.

Effect of aluminum particle on properties of viscous medium during warm viscous pressure bulging

Incorporating aluminum particles into viscous medium was proposed to improve the thermal conductivity of the viscous medium and the efficiency of warm viscous pressure forming(WVPF)process.The influence of aluminum particles on a viscous medium was investigated through settling,thermal conductivity,and compression experiments.Warm viscous pressure bulging(WVPB)experiments were conducted on polyetherimide(PEI)and AZ31B magnesium alloy sheets to determine the influence of the aluminum particles size and fraction on the forming efficiency and formed specimens based on the heating preparation times and profile curves,wall thicknesses and surface roughness values of the bulging specimens.The results show that the thermal conductivity of the viscous medium and the WVPF efficiency can be greatly improved via the addition aluminum particles with appropriate size and fraction under certain temperature condition,but have less influence on other properties of viscous medium.

Thermal properties of open-celled aluminum foams prepared by two infiltration casting methods

Contrastive research was carried out to study the thermal properties of open-celled aluminum foams prepared by counter-gravity infiltration casting system and the traditional process respectively.The experimental results show that the thermal conductivity coefficients of aluminum foams prepared by two different infiltration methods have similar increasing trend with the increase of particle size;along with the reducing porosity,the thermal conductivity coefficients will be enhanced oppositely.However,with the same particle size,the open-celled aluminum foam prepared by the former method has a higher thermal conductivity coefficient obviously.It is largely because that the sample prepared by counter-gravity infiltration casting has a lower void content and better dense crystallization of metal-matrix after the constant pressure process.

Thermal conductivity modeling of water containing metal oxide nanoparticles

The nano particles have demonstrated great potential to improve the heat transfer characteristics of heat transfer fluids.Possible parameters responsible for this increase were studied. The heat transfer profile in the nanolayer region was combined with other parameters such as volume fraction, particle radius thermal conductivity of the fluid, particle and nanolayer, to formulate a thermal conductivity model. Results predicting the thermal conductivity of nanofluids using the model were compared with experimental results as well as studies by other researchers. The comparison of the results obtained for the Cu O/water and Ti O2/water nanofluids studied shows that the correlation proposed is in closest proximity in predicting the experimental results for the thermal conductivity of a nanofluid. Also, a parametric study was performed to understand how a number of factors affect the thermal conductivity of nanofluids using the developed correlation.

Reconstruction of solid oxide fuel cell electrode microstructure and analysis of its effective conductivity

The effective conductivity （aeff） of solid oxide fuel cell （SOFC） electrode is an important parameter for predicting the ohmic loss in SOFC. This paper investigates the effective conductivity of SOFC electrodes recon- structed numerically by packing spherical particles in a computational domain, followed by a dilation process to simulate the sintering procedure. The effects of various parameters on the effective conductivity of the electrodes are investigated, including material composition, porosity, particle size and contact angle. Results show that the effective conductivity ratio （aeff/ao） of the computed con- ducting phase is mainly affected by its total volume frac- tion （VF） in electrode （including the porosity）. The effective conductivity can be improved by increasing the VF, electrode particle size or the contact angle between electrode particles. Based on the numerical results, the conventional percolation model for the calculation of O＇eft is improved by adjusting the Bruggeman factor from 1.5 to 2.7. The results are useful for understanding the microstructure properties of SOFC composite electrode and for subsequent electrode optimization.

Theoretical and experimental study of the thermal conductivity of nanoporous media

The nanoparticle thermal conductivity and nanoscale thermal contact resistance were investigated by molecular dynamics(MD) simulations to further understand nanoscale porous media thermal conductivity.Macroscale porous media thermal conductivity models were then revised for nanoporous media.The effective thermal conductivities of two packed beds with nanoscale nickel particles and a packed bed with microscale nickel particles were then measured using the Hot Disk.The measured results show that the nano/microscale porous media thermal conductivities were much less than the thermal conductivities of the solid particles.Comparison of the measured and calculated results shows that the revised combined parallel-series model and the revised Hsu-Cheng model can accurately predict the effective thermal conductivities of micro-and nanoparticle packed beds.

Achieving anti-sintering of supported platinum nanoparticles using a thermal management strategy

Sintering inhibition of a catalyst at high temperatures is a challenge during heterogeneous catalysis. In this paper, we report that hexagonal boron nitride(h-BN) is an optimal material for anti-sintering γ-Al_(2)O_(3)-supported Pt nanoparticles(NPs) originating from the high thermal conductivity of h-BN. The high thermal conductivity of h-BN ensures maximal heat dissipation from Pt NPs to γ-Al_(2)O_(3),thereby causing both Ostwald ripening and particle coalescence of Pt NPs to be decelerated at elevated temperatures.Inhibition of Pt NP sintering is also shown in the reducible TiO^(2-)supported Pt NPs with the help of h-BN. The proposed anti-sintering strategy using thermal management is universal, providing new insight into the design of anti-sintering materials and structures for a wide range of applications in heterogeneous catalysis.

Stretchable electrothermochromic fibers based on hierarchical porous structures with electrically conductive dual-pathways

Stretchable color-changing fibers are urgently demanded for smart textiles/clothing due to their perfect implantability,permeability of vapor and heat,and flexibility/stretchability.Herein,stretchable electrothermochromic fibers were fabricated with unconventional stretchable conductive fibers as core layers and thermochromic coatings as shell layers.In the stretchable conductive fibers,hierarchical porous structures with percolative one-dimensional(1 D)conductive networks were constructed through phase inversion of carbon nanotube/polyurethane(CNT/PU)solutions.With the deposition of silver nanoparticles(AgN Ps)on the surface of micro-pores,electrically conductive dual-pathways consisting of0 D AgN Ps and 1 D CNTs were formed to significantly enhance the electric conductivity and thus improve the electrothermal performance of the fibers.More importantly,because of the connective CNTs and AgN Ps,such dual-pathways ensured the electron transport under the stretching state,preventing the sharp decay of conductivity and electrothermal performance.Through the continuous wet-spinning method,the stretchable conductive fibers can be easily obtained with the length up to several meters.At last,stretchable electrothermochromic fibers were prepared with two color-changing modes and implanted into textile perfectly,advancing their applications in wearable display and military adaptive camouflage of smart clothing.

One-Dimensional Analysis of Supersonic Two-Stage HVOF Process

The one-dimensional calculation of the gas/particle flows of a supersonic two-stage high-velocity oxy-fuel(HVOF) thermal spray process was performed. The internal gas flow was solved by numerically integrating theequations of the quasi-one-dimensional flow including the effects of pipe friction and heat transfer. As for the supersonicjet flow, semi-empirical equations were used to obtain the gas velocity and temperature along the centerline. The velocity and temperature of the particle were obtained by an one-way coupling method. The material ofthe spray particle selected in this study is ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). The temperaturedistributions in the spherical UHMWPE particles of 50 and 150 m accelerated and heated by the supersonic gasflow was clarified.