Thermal characterization of vertical interface by scanning photothermal radiometry.

In this work, scanning photothermal radiometry is used for imaging and to characterize a submicron crack. From the thermal images, the evolution of the crack is mapped in the space with micrometer resolution. A vertical contact interface at the steel-steel junction is used to represent a micro-crack with a thickness less than 0.5 µm. The thermal quadrupole approach is used to model the heat transfer within the semi-infinite vertical crack. Then, using the phase mapping and that calculated from the model, the estimation of both the equivalent thermal boundary resistance of the interface and the average interface thickness was done.

Thermal imaging by scanning photothermal radiometry.

In this work, a modulated photothermal radiometry principle is applied in a scanning configuration. This technique was developed with the aim of performing imaging and thermal characterization at the microscale and exploring characteristic times lower than those accessible by infrared thermography. The use of a heat source smaller than the measurement area provides high sensitivity to in-plane heat diffusion. Application to quantitative thermal characterization of advanced micro-structured materials is demonstrated.

Probing membrane hydration in microfluidic polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzers via operando synchrotron Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy.

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers are renewable energy storage systems that produce high purity hydrogen fuel from electrochemical water splitting. The PEM in particular is a key component that acts as a solid electrolyte between electrodes and separates the reactants, but despite these benefits, its internal ion transport mechanisms are not fully understood. Here, the first microfluidic PEM electrolyzer that is semi-transparent in the infrared (IR) spectrum is developed as a platform for characterizing the PEM hydration during operation. The electrochemical performance of the chip is compared to its PEM hydration, which is measured via synchrotron Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The PEM water content is directly probed in the operating electrolyzer by measuring the transmitted light intensity at wavelengths around 10 µm. By supplying the electrolyzer with reactant starving flow rates, mass transport driven cell failure is provoked, which coincides with membrane dehydration. Furthermore, higher operating temperatures are observed to improve the stability in membrane hydration through increasing the membrane water uptake. The methods presented here prove the viability of IR techniques for characterizing membrane hydration, and future extension towards imaging and thermography would enable further quantitative studies of internal membrane transport behaviors.

Phonon hydrodynamics in crystalline materials.

Phonon hydrodynamics is an exotic phonon transport phenomenon that challenges the conventional understanding of diffusive phonon scattering in crystalline solids. It features a peculiar collective motion of phonons with various unconventional properties resembling fluid hydrodynamics, facilitating non Fourier heat transport. Hence, it opens up several new avenues to enrich the knowledge and implementations on phonon physics, phonon engineering, and micro and nanoelectronic device technologies. This review aims at covering a comprehensive development as well as the recent advancements in this field via experiments, analytical methods, and state-of-the-art numerical techniques. The evolution of the topic has been realized using both phenomenological and material science perspectives. Further, the discussions related to the factors that influence such peculiar motion, illustrate the capability of phonon hydrodynamics to be implemented in various applications. A plethora of new ideas can emerge from the topic considering both the physics and the material science axes, navigating toward a promising outlook in the research areas around phonon transport in non-metallic solids.

Characterization of a heat flux sensor using short pulse laser calibration.

A method to calibrate classical heat flux sensors is presented. The classical approach to measure the temperature inside a known material by using a thermocouple fails when the measurement time is very short. In this work the surface heat flux is determined by solving the inverse heat conduction problem using a noninteger identified system as a direct model for the estimation process. Using short pulse laser calibration measurements the crucial design aspects of the sensor that play a significant role when assuming one-dimensional, semi-infinite heat transfer have been accounted for. The theoretical approach as well as the calibration results are presented and comparisons to the classical approach and results from finite element modeling are shown. It is concluded that the new method ameliorate the heat flux sensor significantly and extend its application to very short measurement times.

Development of a dedicated hepatopancreaticobiliary program in a university hospital system.

In 2001, a dedicated hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) cancer program was established at a large, university hospital. Changes included recruitment of specialized HPB faculty, standardization of patient protocols, development of coordinated multidisciplinary research and clinical efforts, collection of prospective surgical outcomes data, and construction of a dedicated cancer hospital. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of this program on a university health system including effects on patient volume, surgical volume, outcomes, costs, resident education, and research productivity. Hospital and departmental databases were reviewed for all records pertaining to HPB surgical cases, diagnosis, and financial information over a 6-year period, including 2 years before (1999-2000) and 4 years after (2001-2004) HPB program development. A more than two-fold increase in the number of distinct patients who had HPB diagnosis was seen across all pertinent departments. A five-fold increase in surgical volume was observed. A multidisciplinary approach to care was implemented, leading to a four-fold increase in sharing of patients across departments. Improvements in operative mortality, hospital contribution margin, resident operative experience, and research productivity were observed. The implementation of a dedicated HPB cancer program with coordinated and standardized research, educational, and clinical efforts had measurable institutional benefit.

Thermal characterization of diamond films through modulated photothermal radiometry.

Diamond (Dia) films are promising heat-dissipative materials for electronic packages because they combine high thermal conductivity with high electrical resistivity. However, precise knowledge of the thermal properties of the diamond films is crucial to their potential application as passive thermal management substrates in electronics. In this study, modulated photothermal radiometry in a front-face configuration was employed to thermally characterize polycrystalline diamond films deposited onto silicon (Si) substrates through laser-assisted combustion synthesis. The intrinsic thermal conductivity of diamond films and the thermal boundary resistance at the interface between the diamond film and the Si substrate were investigated. The results enlighten the correlation between the deposition process, film purity, film transverse thermal conductivity, and interface thermal resistance.

Heat flux sensor calibration using noninteger system identification: Theory, experiment, and error analysis.

This paper concerns the improvement of the calibration technique of null point calorimeters generally used in high enthalpy plasma flows. Based on the linearity assumption, this technique leads to calculate the impulse response that relates the heat flux at the tip of the sensor according to the temperature at the embedded thermocouple close to the heated surface. The noninteger system identification (NISI) procedure is applied. The NISI technique had been well described in previous study. The present work focuses on the accuracy of the identified system in terms of absorbed heat flux during the calibration experiment and of the estimated parameters in the model. The impulse response is thus calculated along with its associated standard deviation. Furthermore, this response is compared with that of the one-dimensional semi-infinite medium, which is classically used in practical applications. The asymptotic behavior of the identified system at the short times is analyzed for a better understanding of the noninteger identified system. Finally, the technique was applied to a new sensor geometry that has been developed particularly for high enthalpy plasma flows and it is shown that the method can be applied to any geometry suitable for a certain test configuration.