Thermal Measurements

Modulated photothermal radiometry

At our FLAIR Lab, we set up a modulated photothermal radiometry system using a continuous wave laser to measure the thermal conductivity. MPTR is a non-contact thermal, non-destructive method to measure conductivity and specific heat of materials

Packed Bed systems

Several energy systems, such as nuclear energy and solar thermal energy, utilize particles as a means for energy transfer and energy storage. High thermal conductivity associated with the particle bed is critical for the safety of a nuclear reactor and to ensure high heat transfers rates to the power cycle in solar energy/energy storage. The porosity of the packed bed affects the overall thermal conductivity. The bed porosity is a function of the particle size, shape, and pressure applied to the bed, but consistently varies from ~0.3 to 0.4 for a random packing of uniformly sized particles (as well as for particles of polydisperse size distribution). . In our work we use MPTR to study the thermal conductivity of a packed bed solar particles to investigate efficient energy transfer. This work is supported by DOE SIPS

TIM thermal Conductivity

In this work we study the thermal conductivity of Thermal interface material using MPTR. A primary advantage of MPTR is the ability to study sub layer thermal conductivity of material. This technique is then used to study the thermal conductivity of interfacial material used for packaging and heat dissipation. The work is supported by HP and OMI

Infrared thermography

In a nuclear reactor core, a fuel rod experiences cracking due to rapid changes in the thermal gradient. In This is a multidisciplinary project in collaboration with The Ohio State University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State, and INL. At the FLAIR lab, we designed and developed a free-space optical setup to perform lock-in thermography to study the cracking in surrogate fuel materials subjected to large thermal gradients. Ohio State University modelled the radiation characteristics to determine the optimum experimental conditions.

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