Thermal
homeostasis can maintain body temperature of warm-blooded
organisms in a narrow range to avoid hypothermia, ensuring the normal
operation of life activities. Thermal homeostasis can make the internal
temperature of target relatively insensitive to temperature changes
of surrounding environment, which is of great significance to the
efficient operation of equipment and the service life of material.
The current systems that maintain thermal homeostasis need to consume
electricity, which is very detrimental to energy consumption and global
warming. Here, we propose a novel thermal homeostasis program by means
of tunable sunlight-scattering behaviors of thermochromic hydrogel,
without external energy input such as electrical energy and mechanical
energy. A sandwich structure thermal homeostasiser (SSTH) generated
by the thermal homeostasis program consists of three parts: the radiative
cooling part at the top, the thermochromic part in the middle and
the solar heating part at the bottom. The feasibility of thermal homeostasis
based on SSTH has been verified theoretically and experimentally.
With the ambient air temperature difference of more than 6 °C,
SSTH can maintain its own temperature difference within 1.2 °C.
The SSTH is a simple-feasible paradigm for achieving thermal homeostasis.
This new thermal homeostasis method we proposed can fill the vacancy
of the current thermal homeostasis control means and show great potential
as a complementary mean of the existing building environment control
system to go a step further toward zero-energy building.
Passive radiative cooling includes using the atmospheric window to emit heat energy to the cold outer space and hence reduce the temperature of objects on Earth. In most cases, radiative cooling is required in summer and suppressed in winter for thermal comfort. Recent radiative cooling materials cannot self-adjust cooling capacity according to season and environment, thus limiting their applications. In this study, we have designed a temperature-controlled phase change structure (TCPCS). The TCPCS benefits radiative coolers to adjust their cooling ability according to the ambient temperature. In the outdoor test, the TCPCS can help the cooler to turn off at low temperatures and turn on at high temperatures automatically; the coolers with and without TCPCS have maximal temperature differences of 9.7 and 19.6 °C, respectively, in a whole day. Furthermore, we have further improved and designed a V-shaped TCPCS that can simultaneously achieve the dual functions of cooling in summer and heating in winter. The TCPCS assembled here is a simple, feasible, and scalable structure for self-adaptive cooling.
A combined in-mold decoration and microcellular injection molding (IMD/MIM) method by integrating in-mold decoration injection molding (IMD) with microcellular injection molding (MIM) was proposed in this paper. To verify the effectiveness of the IMD/MIM method, comparisons of in-mold decoration injection molding (IMD), conventional injection molding (CIM), IMD/MIM and microcellular injection molding (MIM) simulations and experiments were performed. The results show that compared with MIM, the film flattens the bubbles that have not been cooled and turned to the surface, thus improving the surface quality of the parts. The existence of the film results in an asymmetrical temperature distribution along the thickness of the sample, and the higher temperature on the film side leads the cell to move toward it, thus obtaining a cell-offset part. However, the mechanical properties of the IMD/MIM splines are degraded due to the presence of cells, while specific mechanical properties similar to their solid counterparts are maintained. Besides, the existence of the film reduces the heat transfer coefficient of the film side so that the sides of the part are cooled asymmetrically, causing warpage.
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