Carbon nanotube-epoxy composites: The role of acid treatment in thermal and electrical conductivity

Wet acid oxidation treatment methods have been widely reported as an effective method to purify and oxidize the surface of industrial multi-walled carbon nanotubes. This work examines the use of a concentrated HNO₃/H₂SO₄ mixture in an attempt to optimize the purification procedure of industrial multi-walled carbon nanotubes with diameter distribution statistics. It is shown that acid treatments of several hours are enough to purify the nanotubes. The electrical and thermal conductivities of epoxy composites containing 0.05–0.25 wt% of an acid-treated multi-walled carbon nanotube have been studied. The electrical conductivity of the composites decreases by more than three orders, whereas the thermal conductivity of the same specimen increases very modestly as a function of the filler content.     

Heat transfer enhancement by combination of serpentine curves and nanofluid flow in microtube

Heat transfer and flow characteristics of Cu/water nanofluids' flow in the serpentine microtubes are investigated experimentally. The serpentine microtubes are fabricated by bending a straight copper microtube with an inner diameter of 787 μm. Also, the Cu/water nanofluids are prepared using a novel one-step technique, namely electro-exploded wire. The effects of serpentine microtubes' geometrical parameters (pitch spacing, p, and straight section, l) and nanofluid concentration (weight fraction, φ) are examined. It is found that the heat transfer enhances by decreasing both the pitch spacing and the straight section of the serpentine microtube as well as increasing the weight fraction of the nanofluid. Also, the results show that the friction factor tends to increase in the same manner. A noticeable average enhancement in the thermal performance factor of 21.8% is obtained for a specific operating condition, i.e., the nanofluid at φ = 0.3% through the serpentine microtube with p = 9.6 mm and l = 10 mm. Finally, two correlations of Nusselt number and friction factor for the Cu/water nanofluids across the serpentine microtubes are proposed.     

Role of entropy generation minimization in thermal optimization

Thermal optimization is very important for improving the performances of thermal systems. In engineering, the entropy generation minimization(EGM) has been widely used to optimize and evaluate the performances of thermal systems.However, the consistency between the EGM and the optimization objective should be specified when the EGM is used.In this paper, we discuss the view angle of irreversibility of entropy generation, and show that entropy generation directly reflects the exergy destruction or the ability loss of doing work. As the design objective in a thermal system is not often consistent with the view angle of irreversibility of entropy generation, the EGM may not lead to the optimal value of the design objective. In heat transfer and heat-work conversion, the inconsistence between the design objectives and the EGM is shown with some examples, and the applicability of the EGM is found to be conditional. The "entropy generation paradox" in heat exchanger analyses is also discussed, and it is shown that there is no direct monotonic relation between the minimum entropy generation rate and the best heat transfer performance of heat exchangers.     

Determination of thermal wave reflection coefficient to better estimate defect depth using pulsed thermography

Thermography is a promising method for detecting subsurface defects, but accurate measurement of defect depth is still a big challenge because thermographic signals are typically corrupted by imaging noise and affected by 3D heat conduction. Existing methods based on numerical models are susceptible to signal noise and methods based on analytical models require rigorous assumptions that usually cannot be satisfied in practical applications. This paper presents a new method to improve the measurement accuracy of subsurface defect depth through determining the thermal wave reflection coefficient directly from observed data that is usually assumed to be pre-known. This target is achieved through introducing a new heat transfer model that includes multiple physical parameters to better describe the observed thermal behaviour in pulsed thermographic inspection. Numerical simulations are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method against four selected state-of-the-art methods. Results show that the accuracy of depth measurement has been improved up to 10% when noise level is high and thermal wave reflection coefficients is low. The feasibility of the proposed method in real data is also validated through a case study on characterising flat-bottom holes in carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates which has a wide application in various sectors of industry.     

高超声速可压缩流中粗糙壁热流研究

用计算流体力学（CFD）数值模拟和理论方法对高超声速可压缩湍流中粗糙壁面热增量进行研究. 着重考虑粗糙单元密度和粗糙单元形状对粗糙表面热流的影响. 结果表明： ①粗糙单元密度变化时, CFD数值方法计算所得的粗糙单元等效热流随着粗糙单元密度的降低而增加, 理论方法预测结果的规律随方法不同而不同;②在相同粗糙单元密度和高度时,如果粗糙单元形状改变,CFD计算结果也随之发生改变. 理论预测方法所得结果不发生变化.     

Direct numerical simulation methods of hypersonic flat-plate boundary layer in thermally perfect gas

High-temperature effects alter the physical and transport properties of air such as vibrational excitation in a thermally perfect gas,and this factor should be considered in order to compute the flow field correctly.Herein,for the thermally perfect gas,a simple method of direct numerical simulation on flat-plat boundary layer is put forward,using the equivalent specific heat ratio instead of constant specific heat ratio in the N-S equations and flux splitting form of a calorically perfect gas.The results calculated by the new method are consistent with that by solving the N-S equations of a thermally perfect gas directly.The mean flow has the similarity,and consistent to the corresponding Blasius solution,which confirms that satisfactory results can be obtained basing on the Blasius solution as the mean flow directly in stability analysis.The amplitude growth curve of small disturbance is introduced at the inlet by using direct numerical simulation,which is consistent with that obtained by linear stability theory.It verified that the equation established and the simulation method is correct.     

集成芯片LED场地照明灯新型叠片散热器热分析

针对大功率LED场地照明集成芯片散热问题,提出了一种新型散热器结构。该散热器利用高导热纯铝材料,采用叠片的方式成型。采用实验和有限元模拟相结合的研究方法,对包括直流电源的新型叠片式LED散热器的散热性能进行了研究。结果表明：LED电源达到稳态所需时间较长,最终能够稳定在一个较低的温度范围。叠片式纯铝散热器通过增加散热面积和提高散热器材料的导热系数能有效降低LED结温。所设计的散热器和选择的电源在自然对流条件下能够很好地满足250 W大功率LED散热要求。     

R410A在水平内螺纹管中沸腾换热实验研究

对于非共沸混合制冷剂R410A在外径9.52mm、5mm的两种不同的几何参数的内螺纹的流动沸腾换热进行了实验研究,分析讨论了制冷剂质量流速、管外水流量变化、强化管的参数、强化管的压降对换热系数影响以及其机理。试验的结果表明:换热系数随着流量的增大而增大,管径的大小对换热系数的影响较大,在相同的流量下,9.52mm的换热系数比5mm的大到110%~230%,5mm管的压降比9.52mm的大200%~300%。     

AC susceptibility of magnetic markers in suspension for liquid phase immunoassay

AC susceptibility of magnetic markers in solution was studied for biosensor applications. First, frequency dependence of the susceptibility was measured, and size distribution of the markers was estimated by analyzing the experimental result with the so-called singular value decomposition (SVD) method. The size distribution estimated with the magnetic measurement agreed with that obtained from conventional optical measurement. Next, susceptibility measurement was applied to the liquid-phase immunoassay without bound/free (B/F) separation. We performed the detection of biotin-coated polymer beads in suspension using avidin-coated magnetic markers. Changes of the susceptibility and the size distribution caused by the binding reaction were shown.     

Spin-peierls transition in dimerized stacks of anion-radical salt (N-Me-2,5-di-Me-Pz)(TCNQ)2, (Pz is pyrazine)

An anion-radical salt (ARS) (N-Me-2,5-di-Me-Pz)(TCNQ)₂, where Pz is pyrazine, was synthesized and its crystal structure was resolved. X-ray diffraction experiments on single crystals were performed. Heat capacity was measured in the temperature range from 2 to 300 K. Magnetisation and magnetic susceptibility were measured in the temperature range from 2 to 300 K and the low-temperature part was measured in magnetic fields from 5 mT to 5 T. The experimental results were explained in terms of dimerized Heisenberg spin chain model. Numerical calculations were performed and compared with experimental data.