Development of MEMS based pyroelectric thermal energy harvesters

Hunter, S. R.; Lavrik, Nickolay V.; Bannuru, Thirumalesh; Mostafa, Salwa; Rajic, Slo; Datskos, Panos G.

doi:10.1117/12.882125

Cited by 38 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…These new properties provide a scope for the deployment of spin transition materials as actuators in artificial muscles and generators in thermal energy harvesting devices. The key advantages of our composite-SCO approach (vs the pure polymers) for these applications are the possibility to: (1) use very small temperature excursions, restricted to a narrow temperature window around the spin transition; [40] (2) use different SCO compounds to adjust this window to the targeted application; [28] (3) obtain actuation/discharge peaks, which is particularly advantageous for applications needing high power. [41] We believe this concept of coupling the spontaneous strain of a first order phase transition with piezo/pyro/ ferro-electric matrices should be easily extended to other material combinations providing thus considerable versatility for the engineering of physico-chemical properties of electroactive polymers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Coupling Mechanical and Electrical Properties in Spin Crossover Polymer Composites

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Coupling Mechanical and Electrical Properties in Spin Crossover Polymer Composites

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thermal transient processes already drive a number of high-efficiency heat removal systems, including pulsating heat pipes [9], solid-state heat pumps [10], and phase change electronics cooling [11]. However, outside of work on pyroelectric and other solid-state phenomena [12,13], little attention has been given to the potential benefit of the thermal pulse mode in an energy harvesting context. In this paper, we investigated both the PHF and OTS energy harvesting configurations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pulsed Heat Transfer for Thermal Maximum Power Point Tracking

McKay

Wang

2013

Volume 6B: Energy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents a new method for enhancing thermal energy harvesting via pulsed heat transfer. By acting as a variable thermal resistance that theoretically generates no entropy, a pulsed thermal connection allows calibration of the effective thermal resistance of an energy harvesting system. By adjusting the frequency and duty cycle of the pulsed heat transfer, the method allows an energy harvester to be continuously optimized for a variable incident heat flux. In this paper, the analysis of a generalized model shows how the pulse strategy theoretically allows any heat engine-heat sink pair to work at the same power and efficiency as a 1:1 thermal resistance-matched engine-heat sink pair of equal or greater total thermal resistance. Experiments with a mechanical thermal switch validate this model, and show how the pulse strategy can improve the efficiency of a system with equal engine and heat sink thermal resistances by over 80% with no increase in the hot-side maximum temperature, although at reduced total power. At a 1:2 engine-sink resistance ratio, the improvement can simultaneously exceed 60% in power and 15% in efficiency. The thermal pulse strategy could be implemented to improve of a variety of systems that convert thermal energy, from waste heat harvesters to the radioisotope power systems on many spacecraft.

show abstract

“…Because some pyroelectric materials continue to function at temperatures in excess of 1400 K (vs. less than 1300 K for thermoelectric materials), Carnot efficiencies can be higher as well [19].…”

Section: Figure 15 a Pyroelectric Bimorph Cantilevermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Until recently, the limiting factor on generation capacity has been the ability to rapidly cycle temperature. A recent development provides the potential to cycle temperatures hundreds of times per second [19], allowing pyroelectic generation to compete very favorably with the more mature TEG technology.…”

Section: Pyroelectric Convertersmentioning

confidence: 99%