Boiling phenomena in micro scale has emerged as an interesting topic due to its complexity and increasing usage in micro electronic and mechanical systems (MEMS). Experimental visualization has discovered five main flow regimes: nucleate boiling, isolated bubbles, confine bubbly flow, elongated bubbly (or slug) flow, and annular flow. Two of these patterns (confine bubbles and slug flow) are rarely found in macro channels and are believed to have very different heat transfer mechanisms to that of nucleate boiling. The development of a phenomenological model demands a deep understanding of each flow regime as well as the transition process between them. While studies in every individual flow pattern are available in literature, the mechanisms of transition processes between them remain mysterious. More specifically, how the isolated bubbles evolve into a confined bubbly flow, and how this further evolves into elongated bubbles and finally an annular flow. The effects of boundary conditions such as wall heat flux, surface tension, and interfacial velocity are unclear, too. The aims of this thesis are to develop and validate a new numerical algorithm, perform a comprehensive numerical study on these transition processes, uncover the transition mechanisms and investigate effects of boundary and operating conditions. Firstly, a sophisticated and robust numerical model is developed by combining a coupled level set method (CLSVOF) and a non-equilibrium phase change model, which enables an accurate capture of the two-phase interface, as well as the interface temperature. Secondly, several flow regime transitions are studied in this thesis: nucleate bubbles to confined bubbly flow, multi confined bubbles moving consecutively in a micro channel, and slug to annular flow transition. Effects of surface tension, heat flux, mass flux, and fluid properties are examined. All these regimes are studied separately, which means an appropriate initial condition is needed for each regime. The author developed a simplified model based on energy balance to set the initial and boundary conditions. / <p>QC 20170403</p>

Chalcogenide phase change (PC) materials can be reversibly transformed between the high resistivity (~ 1 Ω∙m) amorphous state (OFF-state) and low resistivity (~ 10-6 Ω∙m) crystalline state (ON-state) thermally, both are stable at the room temperature. This makes them well suited as reconfigurable RF switches and non-volatile memories. This work will present the understandings of two key characteristics of PC materials, the crystallization dynamics and the threshold voltage (Vth), as they determine performance limitations in these applications. Crystallization dynamics describe the correlations of the states, temperature and time; the Vth is the trigger of the threshold switching which leads to the “break down” of PC materials from OFF-state to ON-state. The four-terminal indirectly-heated RF switches with high cut-off frequency (> 5 THz) has advantages over other technologies but its programming power (~ 1.5 W) is yet to be reduced. Measuring the maximum allowed RESET quench time in the crystallization dynamics is critical for designing low power switches. As a major contribution, this work provides a universal methodology for accurate heater thermometry and in-situ crystallization measurements for this study. On the other hand, understanding the Vth is essential for high power handling applications as it determines the maximum power that an OFF-state switch can withstand without being spontaneously turned on. This work will discuss new observations and learnings from Vth measurements including the geometry dependent Vth variations which provide insights into the threshold switching mechanism. Unlike RF switches, faster crystallization is desired for memories to improve the write speed. The non-Arrhenius crystallization needs to be explored to achieve short crystallization time (< 10 ns) at high temperature (> 700 K). As another major contribution, this work will present a nano-scale (~ 100 nm) high-speed (thermal time constant < 5 ns) PC device for assessing the crystallization time in this regime, and provide a comprehensive learning for the crystallization dynamics from 300 K to 1000 K by developing a unified framework based on the fragility model and growth-dominated crystallization. This can be used to accurately simulate the crystallization process for any device geometry and estimate the RF switches power and Vth.

Ce travail est effectué dans le cadre d'une thèse Conventions Industrielles de Formation par la Recherche (CIFRE) entre l’entreprise Sophia Antipolis Énergie Développement (SAED) à Valbonne et l'Institut Matériaux Microélectronique Nanosciences de Provence (IM2NP) – CNRS – Université du Sud Toulon-Var.L’objectif de cette collaboration est l’évaluation du potentiel technico-économique de divers matériaux pour le stockage de l’énergie thermique par chaleur latente, adapté aux niveaux de température des capteurs solaires développés par SAED. En effet, le stockage de l’énergie est un des principaux verrous technologiques reconnus pour les procédés ayant recours à des énergies renouvelables intermittentes et en particulier pour les centrales héliothermodynamiques.Après une introduction sur le potentiel et l’intérêt des centrales solaires thermodynamiques à basse température, un bref état de l’art des principaux types de stockage de l’énergie est présenté. Le deuxième chapitre aborde plus en détail le principe du stockage thermique par chaleur latente et recense une centaine de matériaux sélectionnés dans la littérature pour leur changement de phase dans la gamme de température 70 - 140°C. Les critères de sélection retenus y sont exposés.Des analyses thermiques par calorimétrie différentielle à balayage sont effectuées de façon systématique sur les différents Matériaux à Changement de Phase (MCP) sélectionnés. Les résultats de ces mesures, présentés dans le chapitre III, caractérisent avec précision le comportement de ces matériaux au chauffage. La transformation au refroidissement est étudiée au moyen d’un dispositif conçu spécifiquement pour représenter au mieux les conditions imposées dans une enceinte industrielle. Cette étude, présentée dans le chapitre IV, permet d’affiner la sélection des MCP pour ne garder que ceux dont la réversibilité du changement d’état est compatible avec une utilisation industrielle en tant que milieu de stockage de l’énergie thermique. Les chapitres V et VI permettent d’étudier plus en détails les spécificités de deux types de MCP que sont les polyols et les mélanges eutectiques de nitrates.Le dernier chapitre est consacré à la modélisation des échanges thermiques au sein d’une cuve de stockage contenant un MCP encapsulé. L’objectif est de disposer d’un outil de prédiction des performances d’une unité de stockage par chaleur latente, afin d’analyser l’influence des différentes solutions envisagées sur le productible d’une centrale thermodynamique solaire et leur impact sur le coût du kWh électrique produit. / This work of thesis is done within the framework of industrial agreements research training, between the company Sophia Antipolis Energie Développement (SAED) in Valbonne, and the Institut Matériaux Microélectronique Nanosciences de Provence (IM2NP) – CNRS – University Sud Toulon-Var.The aim of this collaboration is to investigate the technical and economic potential of various materials for thermal energy storage by latent heat, suitable for temperature levels of the solar collectors developed by SAED. Indeed, energy storage is a major technological barrier to the process resorting to intermittent renewable energies and especially for thermodynamic solar power plants.After an introduction on the potential and interest of solar power plants working at low temperature, a brief state of art of the main types of energy storage is presented. The second chapter addresses in detail the principle of thermal storage by latent heat and identifies a hundred of selected materials from the literature for phase change in the temperature range 343 - 413 K. The selection criteria are exposed.Thermal analyses by differential scanning calorimetry are carried out systematically on the various selected Phase Change Materials (PCMs). The results of these measurements, presented in chapter III, accurately characterize the material behavior when heated. The transformation on cooling is studied using a device specifically designed in order to be more representative of conditions found in an industrial enclosure. This study, presented in chapter IV, allows refining the selection of PCMs retaining only those whose phase change reversibility is compatible with an industrial use as medium for thermal energy storage. Chapters V and VI are used to study in further detail the specifics of two types of MCP, respectively polyols and eutectic mixtures of nitrates.Final chapter deals with the modeling of heat transfer into a storage tank containing encapsulated PCM. The aim is to provide a tool for predicting the performance of a latent heat storage unit, in order to analyze the influence of different options on the solar power plant energy yield and their impact on the kWh cost.

Estudamos o modelo de Ising com diluição de sítios numa rede de Bethe. a estrutura hierárquica da rede de Bethe leva de forma natural às relações de recorrência satisfeitas pelas distribuições de probabilidade dos campos efetivos. As quantidades termodinâmicas na rede de Bethe são então expressas explicitamente em termos das distribuições limite dos campos efetivos. As distribuições dos campos efetivos em T=0 são obtidas de forma numericamente exata (isto é, se desprezarmos os erros de arrendodamento) e também analiticamente em alguns casos selecionados. Encontramos no caso de interações ferromagnéticas um número sempre finito de campos efetivos possíveis, mas no caso de interações antiferromagnéticas esse número pode divergir para valores irracionais do campo aplicado. Esses resultados fornecem o diagrama de fases campo aplicado versus concentração, numericamente exato, para antiferromagnetismo diluído em T=0. As distribuições dos campos efetivos são determinadas aproximadamente para T>0 e utilizadas para o cálculo de diferentes grandezas termodinâmicas. Apresentamos as curvas de magnetização, energia livre, energia interna e entropia. Esses cálculos fornecem o diagrama de fases aproximado no espaço tridimensional de campo aplicado, temperatura e concentração. / The site diluted Ising model is studied on a Beth lattice. The hierarchical structure of the Bethe lattice leads naturally to recursion relations obeyed by the probability distributions of the effective fields. The thermodynamic quantities on the Bethe lattice are then explicitly written in terms of the limiting distributions of the effective fields. Numerically exact results (i.e. if we neglect roundoff errors) for the distributions of the effective fields for T = 0 are presented, together with analytic results for select cases. It is found that the number of effective fields is always finite in the case of ferromagnetic interactions , but it might diverge for irrational values of the applied field in the case of antiferromagnetic interactions. These results yeld a numerically exact applied field versus concentration phase diagram for diluted antiferromagnet at T = 0. The distributions of the effective fields are computed aproximately for T > 0 and used to evaluete various thermodynamic quantities. Curves for the magnetization, free energy, internal energy and entropy are displayed. These calculations give an approximate three-dimensional phase diagram in the space of applied field, temperature and concentration.

In addition, this project also investigated schemes that might enhance the phase change in the SPR sensor. The "double-pass" and "multi-pass" approaches through which the SPR phase can be amplified upon hitting the sensor surface more than once, have been experimentally studied and successfully demonstrated. A double-pass method can immediately offer two times of phase change as compared to the singlepass one. Accordingly the multi-pass scheme offers a higher then two times phase enhancement. Such improvement in phase detection is extremely important for biosensing applications involving small molecules, small proteins, DNA and etc. Another approach for detection performance improvement is to incorporate a multilayer configuration for the biosensing surface. In order to improve the dynamic measurement response, we proposed to use a multiple resonant angle measurement approach in conjunction with the single-beam self-referenced phase-sensitive SPR configuration. With the use of many multiple incident angles, the system provided sensing capability that covers a refractive index (RI) 1.33 to over 1.38. A 128-element array detector was employed to measure the resonance phase change over the range of the incident angles to ensure a reasonably continuous phase response curves achievable from the system. / This project is concerned with the development and optimization of optical sensors based on measuring the phase change of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect. The phase sensitive SPR technique provides very high sensitivity performance due to the fact that an abrupt phase jump occurs near the resonance dip, thus resulting in large phase shift with very small change in the sensing medium. A range of different measurement techniques for enhancing system sensitivity have been investigated. Moreover we also studied the phase change characteristics around the SPR dip region by means of simulation in order to explore various approaches for achieving further improvement in sensitivity and as well as wide dynamic range. Since SPR is caused by electron charge density oscillations in metal surface in which the wave momentum required for plasmon wave excitation is always larger than that for free space, an inverted prism-coupling scheme (prism-metal-dielectric) is commonly used and this configuration was also employed in our experimental setup, particularly for the SPR biosensor based on differential phase Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration. This design primarily operates by taking advantage of the fact that SPR only affects the p-polarization while leaving the s-polarization unchanged. This means that differential phase measurement between the p- and s- polarizations will result in SPR signals that are completely free from any disturbances that are common to both channels. Experimental results obtained from glycerin/water mixtures indicate that the sensitivity limit of our scheme is 5.48 x 10 -8 refractive index unit per 0.01&deg; phase change. To our knowledge, this is a significant improvement over previously obtained results when gold is used as the sensor surface. While acknowledging that accurate optical alignment is a crucial requirement for the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and it is often not easy to maintain high degree alignment accuracies in practical situations, we have developed a versatile and low cost single-beam self-referenced phase-sensitive surface SPR sensing system. The system exhibits a root-mean-square phase fluctuation of +/-0.0028&deg; over a period of 45 minutes, i.e. a resolution of +/-5.2x10 -9 refractive index units. The enhanced performance has been achieved through the incorporation of three design elements: (i) a true single-beam configuration enabling complete self-referencing so that only the phase change associated with SPR gets detected; (ii) a differential measurement scheme to eliminate spurious signals not related to the sensor response; (iii) elimination of retardation drifts by incorporating temperature stabilization in the liquid crystal phase modulator. Our design should bring the detection sensitivity of non-labeling SPR biosensing closer to that achievable by conventional florescence-based techniques. / Wu, Shu Yuen. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-06, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-147). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Solar assisted heat pump (SAHP) systems have been widely applied in domestic hot water (DHW) production due to their sustainability and stability in operations. However, their performance efficiency requires further improvement using advanced technologies such as energy storage with phase change materials (PCM) and optimal system controls. Undoubtedly, employing PCMs for latent heat storage (LHS) application has a great potential to improve a solar thermal application performance. Despite this fact, the use of PCM in this area is quite limited due to the poor thermal conductivity of available PCMs. Therefore, heat transfer enhancement is one of the essential strategies that can overcome this obstacle. Accordingly, a test rig of a new indirect expansion solar assisted heat pump (IDX-SAHP) system has been designed, built and instrumented. The system can handle heating capacity up to 9 kW. The IDX-SAHP system consists of three operational loops: solar thermal, solar-air assisted heat pump and load profile. A 2 kW PCM heat exchanger (HX) was purposely designed and installed in the system solar thermal loop to store solar energy, when applicable, and release heat when required by the heat pump. The PCM HX is employed with a novel heat transfer enhancement method. The maximum coefficient of performance (COP) of the IDX-SHAP system reached 4.99 during the sunny day with the PCM (HX) integration. However, the maximum energy saving was achieved during the cloudy day with the PCM HX integration. Moreover, the proposed heat transfer enhancement method has been modelled through CFD package and validated with the experimental results. This allows a clear understanding of the reasons for the longer discharging process compared with the charging process. Furthermore, the inlet flow rate and temperature variation of the PCM HX was simulated during charging and discharging processes. The optimum inlet flow rate for this application was found at 0.1 kg/s while the optimum inlet temperature was found at 40°C. Meanwhile, the whole system was modelled by the coupling of TRNSYS, EES and CFD to investigate the potential and advantages of using the system in locations with rich solar intensity such as Cairo and Madrid. The simulation shows that the solar thermal operation loop was called more frequently in these locations. This had a significant impact on the system energy consumption, especially during winter. The maximum COP and solar performance factor (SPF) of the modelled system were 5.3 and 0.83 respectively.

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A prototype thermal storage system, using phase change materials, was developed for a novel electric vehicle climate conditioning application. The proposed system consists of a heat transfer fluid circulating between either an on-board hot or cold thermal storage unit, which we refer to as thermal battery, and a liquid-air heat exchanger that provides heat exchange with the incoming air to the vehicle cabin. The research presented herein focuses primarily on the development of the on-board system and hot battery. While the air conditioning system was developed strictly for laboratory use, it was designed to meet application realistic performance metrics, e.g., a heat dissipation rate of 2 kW. The prototype was tested with three phase change materials: paraffin wax, xylitol, and erythritol. Furthermore, a full system thermodynamic model was developed to predict thermal performance that features semi-analytic solution to the coupled forced convection and phase change conduction heat transfer. Modeling results are compared against a numerical benchmark as well as our own experimental data. / text

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The present study has focused on the use of coil heat exchangers (CHEs) with microencapsulated phase change material (MPCM) slurries to understand if CHEs can yield greater rates of heat transfer. An experimental study was conducted using a counterflow CHE consisting of 3 helical coils. Two separate tests were conducted, one where water was used as heat transfer fluid (HTF) on the coil and shell sides, respectively; while the second one made use of MPCM slurry and water on the coil and shell sides, respectively. The NTU-effectiveness relationship of the CHE when MPCM fluid is used approaches that of a heat exchanger with a heat capacity ratio of zero. The heat transfer results have shown that when using a MPCM slurry, an increase in heat transfer rate can be obtained when compared to heat transfer results obtained using straight heat transfer sections. It has been concluded that the increased specific heat of the slurry as well as the fluid dynamics in helical coil pipes are the main contributors to the increased heat transfer.