Project number
25053
Organization
Raytheon Technologies
Offering
ENGR498-F2024-S2025
Keeping electronics cool isn’t just about performance, it’s about survival. Excess heat can cripple efficiency, shorten lifespan or even trigger catastrophic failures. Enter the nitinol-aluminum (NiTi-Al) thermal diode, a potentially cutting-edge solution designed to preferentially control heat flow and directionally. It is analogous to the one-way electron flow of an electric diode. The NiTi-Al thermal diode could revolutionize heat management, ensuring that critical systems operate at peak performance and enhancing everything from military technology to next-generation computing and nanotechnology.
A paper by Dr. Franziskonis proposed this theory. It asked, can phase-transforming smart materials like nitinol – an alloy made of nickel and titanium – create a highly effective thermal diode? To find out, the team designed and built a specialized rig to experimentally test and analyze heat flow and thermal rectification efficiency. An insulated firebrick enclosure housed the test samples to ensure controlled thermal conditions while a patch heater simulated the thermal temperatures encountered in missile flights. Thermocouples attached to the samples sent data to a laptop through a data logger so the team could analyze the thermal diode’s performance versus control samples. Based on the test results, the team concluded that these NiTi-Al thermal diodes could be highly effective in specialized applications.
A paper by Dr. Franziskonis proposed this theory. It asked, can phase-transforming smart materials like nitinol – an alloy made of nickel and titanium – create a highly effective thermal diode? To find out, the team designed and built a specialized rig to experimentally test and analyze heat flow and thermal rectification efficiency. An insulated firebrick enclosure housed the test samples to ensure controlled thermal conditions while a patch heater simulated the thermal temperatures encountered in missile flights. Thermocouples attached to the samples sent data to a laptop through a data logger so the team could analyze the thermal diode’s performance versus control samples. Based on the test results, the team concluded that these NiTi-Al thermal diodes could be highly effective in specialized applications.