Currently favoured extensions of the Standard Model typically contain ‘flaton fields’ defined as fields with large vacuum expectation values (vevs) and almost flat potentials. If a flaton field is trapped at the origin in the early universe, one expects ‘thermal inflation’ to take place before it rolls away to the true vacuum, because the finite-temperature correction to the potential will hold...

This study is focused on the preparation and performance of a building energy storage panel (BESP). The BESP was fabricated through a mold pressing method based on phase change material particle (PCMP), which was prepared in two steps: vacuum absorption and surface film coating. Firstly, phase change material (PCM) was incorporated into expanded perlite (EP) through a vacuum absorption method t...

MEMS thermal actuators have been employed in a broad range of applications, often operating in different environments (e.g. vacuum, air or liquid). Since the involved heat dissipation mechanisms are different in different operating environments, the device performances are expected to be different. In this paper, we report experimental measurement and multiphysics modeling of device performance...

A limiting factor in the feasibility of photoconductive power switches is the optical energy required to trigger the switch and maintain the conduction. Since the optical energy required is proportional to the square of the length, the length of the switch should be made as short as possible. The minimum length is dictated by surface flashover which occurs a t field strengths which are lower th...

the energy requirement of vacuum membrane distillation (vmd) with or without recirculation was modelled using both experimental results and theoretical data. the trends are generally consistent between the theoretical and experimental data. thermal energy contributes the most to the total energy required for the vmd process. to lower the thermal energy cost, waste heat resource and heat recover...

Coumarin and thiocoumarin, which are usually thermally unreactive for dimerization, were dimerized in their inclusion crystalline complexes under thermal and high vacuum conditions.

A portable Thermal-Infrared Transfer Radiometer (TXR) has been developed for use in intercomparisons and scale verifications of sources used to calibrate thermal-infrared (TIR) channels of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Earth Observing System (EOS) flight instruments. The TXR is designed to measure the radiance temperature of large area blackbody sources in cryogen...

This paper compares the effective thermal resistance of 5 wall assemblies incorporating vacuum insulation panels (VIP) encased in extruded polystyrene (XPS), known as composite panels, through three different evaluation methods. The methods consisted of using steady-state and in-situ experimental testing as well as computer simulation. The computer modelling of the wall assemblies used simplifi...

In the presence of strong magnetic fields, the vacuum becomes a birefringent medium. We show that this QED effect couples the direction of the polarization of photons leaving the NS surface, to the direction of the magnetic field along the ray’s path. We analyze the consequences that this effect has on aligning the polarization vectors to generate large net polarizations, while considering ther...