Two experiments have been conducted to ascertain if a cell with a palladium cathode, a platinum anode, and a solution of H2SO4 in D2O can produce excess heat under electrolysis compared to a similar cell with H2O. In each experiment, two cells were connected in series with constant current. The two cells were identical except for the fact that the heavy water cell used D2O instead of H2O in the electrolyte. Both cells in each experiment employed Pd cathodes, Pt anodes, and H2SO4 in the solution. On a piece of Pd foil that had been cold-rolled and cleaned like the cathodes but had not been electrolyzed, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) failed to find any traces of unexpected elements. In the first experiment the indication was that the light water cell was slightly warmer despite receiving slightly less power. Small amounts of silver were found on both cathodes after electrolysis. In the second experiment, the D2O cell produced an excess heat relative to the H2O cell that was too large by at least an order of magnitude to be explainable by chemical reactions or mechanical artifacts. After electrolysis, it was found that Cd was present on the surface of the H2O cathode at levels of concentration that were variable but generally no less than 4% relative to Pd (above 3σ). The H2O cathode of this second experiment finished electrolysis very straight. The D2O cell cathode finished severely arched (~30o), with its convex side facing the anode, and covered in a deposit of powdery black substance which was most likely PdS formed accidentally on the first day of this experiment when the D2O cell had been run with the wrong polarity. On this D2O cell cathode, no statistically significant traces of Cd were detected but Ag was present in 2-5% concentration relative to Pd. In some spots, the Ag abundance surpassed 20% that of Pd. The most likely explanation is neutron-induced nuclear transmutation of some of the Pd nuclides with direct release of heat into the solid-state lattice.

In observations of steady-state nucleate boiling, fluctuations in the temperature and heat flux might initially appear to be completely random. However, it was shown that, for a vertically mounted platinum wire in liquid nitrogen, the fluctuations about the steady-state exhibit an average counterclockwise circulation when the heat flux is plotted versus the superheat temperature. An area associated with the average circulation was proposed as a numerical measure of stability for steady-state nucleate boiling. The mechanisms for the generation of these fluctuations are thought to be the feedback of the bubbles rising past the wire and the differential heating and cooling that this engenders. Data similar to the data on the vertical wire have been obtained using the same wire mounted horizontally. Although the counterclockwise circulation mentioned above is still seen, the measure of stability as proposed earlier, is less useful for prediction of the transition to film boiling. This reduced sensitivity can be attributed to the fact that the possibility of feedback through the rising bubbles has been eliminated.

The effect of a non-uniform magnetic field on the coupled transport of momentum and heat is studied for the case of laminar pipe flow of a magnetically susceptible ferrofluid. The momentum and heat transport equations are complemented with the necessary electromagnetic terms and used to develop a computer simulation of the velocity profile and temperature distribution in the fluid. Two magnetic field configurations are studied. The first configuration is produced by a single short solenoid, located around the pipe. The magnetic field produced has both radial and axial components. For the second configuration, the electric current is inverted in one half of the solenoid, creating much stronger field gradients in both directions. The flow is laminar, driven by a constant pressure difference between the ends of the pipe. The apparent viscosity of the ferrofluid is modeled as dependent on temperature and magnetic field. In simulations involving heat transfer, a section of the pipe is maintained at higher constant temperature. The rest of the wall is adiabatic. A Visual-Basic code, FiRMa (Flow in Response to Magnetic field), was developed to perform the numerical simulations. For the water-based ferrofluid, results show reduction of average velocity and small deviations from the parabolic velocity profile as the result of vortex viscosity. Heat transfer calculations show a decrease in the heat transfer coefficient and an increase in the fluid exit temperature. These effects are due to the change in flow pattern and average velocity. Current research aims for the development of a stable liquid-metal based ferrofluid, because of the high electric and thermal conductivities. The FiRMa code is used to examine the expected response of a mercury-based ferrofluid to the magnetic fields under study. Results show that the electromagnetic effects on the liquid metal-based ferrofluid are much stronger, due to induced electric currents and the Lorentz force acting on them. / Graduation date: 2003

A two-dimensional model for predicting the rate of radiation heat transfer for the interior of an industrial furnace is described. The model is two-dimensional due to the assumptions of the heat source as an infinite radiating plane and the heat sink as rows of parallel tubes that are both infinite in length and in number. A refractory back wall, located behind the tube rows, is also included in some of the model configurations. The optical properties for the heat source, heat sink, and refractory back wall are simplified by assuming the "black-body" case: all are treated as perfect absorbers and emitters of radiation. This assumption allows three different solution techniques-a graphical, crossed-string, and numerical method-to be used in solving for the radiant transfer rate. The numerical method, an innovative Monte Carlo technique, is the one employed in this study. Hottel used a graphical technique to solve the furnace model for a two row configuration in which the tubes are arranged on equilateral triangular centers. His results, along with those produced by the crossed-string method, are used in this work to validate the numerical technique. Having been validated, the numerical method was then employed to extend Hottel's work by adding more tube rows to the original equilateral triangular configuration and by generalizing the results to isosceles arrangements. Findings of this investigation are summarized in a table that lists the direct view factors for a ten tube row configuration arranged in an equilateral triangular array. Values from this table can be used to solve the transfer rate problem for twenty different cases by assuming a nonconducting refractory back wall. Results for twelve cases are represented graphically in this document The results are used to demonstrate the importance of a refractory back wall on overall radiation absorption. Examinations of the two row and five row cases for an isosceles triangular array indicate that the tabular values can be applied to any isosceles arrangement if the ratio of row separation distance to tube center-to-center distance is 0.7 or greater. / Graduation date: 1995

Absorption space-conditioning systems are environmentally benign alternatives to vapor compression systems and have the capability of being driven by waste heat. However, a lack of practically feasible and economically viable compact heat and mass exchangers is a major limitation in the success of this technology. The viability of the absorption cycle depends upon the performance of the absorber, which experiences large heat and mass transfer resistances due to adverse temperature and concentration gradients during the phase change of the binary mixture working fluid, resulting in large overall component sizes. Understanding of the coupled heat and mass transfer during binary fluid mixture absorption at the microscales is critical for the miniaturization of these components, which will enable broad implementation of this technology. The proposed study aims to achieve this by investigating ammonia-water absorption for two distinct flow configurations: external falling films and internal convective flows. For the falling-film absorption case, ammonia-water solution flows around an array of small diameter coolant tubes while absorbing vapor. This absorber is installed in a test facility comprising all components of a single-effect absorption chiller to provide realistic operating conditions at the absorber. Local temperature, pressure, and flow measurements will be taken over a wide range of operating conditions and analyzed to develop a heat and mass transfer model for falling-film ammonia-water absorption. A microscale convective flow absorber will also be investigated. This absorber consists of an array of parallel, aligned alternating shims with integral microscale features, enclosed between cover plates. These microscale features facilitate flow of various fluid streams and the associated heat and mass transfer. The use of microchannels induces high heat and mass transfer rates without any active or passive surface enhancement. The microscale absorber for small-scale applications will be evaluated over a wide range of operating conditions on a single-effect absorption heat pump breadboard test facility. The study will conclude with a comparison of the two flow configurations for absorption, with recommendations for their application in future miniaturization efforts

A novel hybrid cooling scheme is proposed to remove non-uniform heat flux in real time from the microprocessor. It consists of a liquid cooled microchannel heat sink to remove the lower background heat flux and superlattice coolers to dissipate the high heat flux present at the hotspots. Superlattice coolers (SLC) are solid-state devices, which work on thermoelectric effect, and provide localized cooling for hotspots. SLCs offer some unique advantage over conventional cooling solutions. They are CMOS compatible and can be easily fabricated in any shape or size. They are more reliable as they don't contain any moving parts. They can remove high heat flux from localized regions and provide faster time response. Experimental devices are fabricated to characterize the steady-state, as well as transient performance, of the hybrid cooling scheme. Performance of the hybrid cooling scheme has been examined under various operating conditions. Effects of various geometric parameters have also been thoroughly studied. Heat flux in excess of 300 W/cm² has been successfully dissipated from localized hotspots. Maximum cooling at the hotspot is observed to be more than 6 K. Parasitic heat transfer to the superlattice cooler drastically affects its performance. Thermal resistance between ground electrode and heat sink, as well as thermal resistance between ground electrode and superlattice cooler, affect the parasitic heat transfer from to the superlattice cooler. Two different test devices are fabricated specifically to examine the effect of both thermal resistances. An electro-thermal model is developed to study the thermal coupling between two superlattice coolers. Thermal coupling significantly affects the performance of an array of superlattice coolers. Several operating parameters (activation current, location of ground electrode, choice of working fluid) affect thermal coupling between superlattice coolers, which has been computationally as well as experimentally studied. Transient response of the superlattice cooler has also been examined through experiments and computational modeling. Response time of the superlattice cooler has been reported to be less than 35 µs.

Graduation date: 1993

The implicit Monte Carlo (IMC) method [16] for radiative transfer, developed in 1971, provides numerical solutions to the tightly-coupled, highly-nonlinear radiative heat transfer equations in many physical situations. Despite its popularity, there are instances of overheating in the solution for particular choices of time steps and spatial grid sizes. To prevent overheating, conditions on teh time step size Δt have been sought to ensure that the implicit Monte Carlo (IMC) equations satisfy a maximum principle. Most recently, a discrete maximum principle (DMP) for teh IMC equations has been developed [32] that predicts the necessary time step size for boundedness given the spatial grid size. Predictions given by this DMP assumed equilibrium thermal initial conditions, was developed using pseudo-analytic and symbolic algebra tools that are computationally expensive, has only been applied to one-dimensional Marshak wave problems, and has not considered the evolution of the DMP predictions over multiple time steps. These limitations restrict the utility of the DMP predictions. We extend the DMP derivation to overcome these limitations and provide an algorithm that can be introduced into IMC codes with minimal impact on simulation CPU time. This extended DMP effectively treats non-equilibrium thermal initial conditions, decreases calculation time by using multigroup approximations in frequency, considers multiple spatial dimensions with an arbitrary number of neighboring sources, and overcomes inherent difficulties for the DMP in time-dependent problems. Disequilibrium in the initial conditions is introduced through a redefinition of existing terms from [32] to different radiation and material temperatures on the first time step. This results in a limiting DMP inequality similar in form to the original. Multifrequency approximations are then applied by assuming separation of variables. Energy deposition from multiple sources is assumed to follow linear superposition and the DMP from [32] is re-derived to incorporate multiple incident sources of energy in multiple dimensions. Lastly, an inherent flaw in the DMP resulting in poor predictions when temperature varies slowly over a region is overcome by developing a threshold temperature difference, above which the DMP operates. We have numerically implemented these improvements and validated the results against IMC solutions, showing the predictive capacity of the more general DMP algorithm. We find the disequlibrium conditions to be properly incorporated into the DMP, and multifrequency approximations to be accurate over a large range of time step and spatial grid sizes. The linear superposition assumption is generally very accurate, but infrequently leads to DMP predictions which are not conservative. We also demonstrate that the temperature difference threshold prevents inaccurate predictions by the DMP while preserving its functionality. / Graduation date: 2013

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Electromechanical Engineering

En la presente tesis se efectúa un estudio del comportamiento térmico de tableros de puente a partir de los datos de su geometría, para lo cual es preciso definir una clasificación de los tableros de puente a efectos térmicos. Se introducen como condiciones de contorno los datos de la temperatura ambiente y radiación a lo largo del día. Para resolver la conducción de conducción de calor se han creado dos programas de ordenador que permiten obtener el campo de temperaturas en el tablero y se ha efectuado el consiguiente estudio paramétrico de los variables que influyen en el problema. Se propone una modificación del sistema de obtención del diagrama momentos-curvatura que considere el estado de auto tensión térmica.