Heat transfer through the gas diffusion layer (GDL) is a key process in the design and operation of a PEM fuel cell. The analysis of this process requires determination of the effective thermal conductivity. This transport property differs significantly in the through-plane and in-plane directions due to the anisotropic micro-structure of the GDL. In the present study, a novel test bed that all...

Heat transfer through the gas diffusion layer (GDL) of a PEM fuel cell is a key process in the design and operation a PEM fuel cell. The analysis of this process requires determination of the effective thermal conductivity as well as the thermal contact resistance between the GDL and adjacent surfaces/layers. In the present study, a guarded-hot-plate apparatus has been designed and built to mea...

We compute the thermal conductance between two nanoparticles in contact based on the Molecular Dynamics technique. The contact is generated by letting both particles stick together under van der Waals attractions. The thermal conductance is derived from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem and the time fluctuations of the exchanged power. We show that the conductance is proportional to the atoms...

Introduction Heat dissipation is the most critical problem that limits the performance, power, reliability and further miniaturization of microelectronics. The thermal performance of these devices is greatly affected by the thermal resistance associated with interface between the heat sink and heat source. The improvement of a thermal contact is associated with a decrease of the thermal resista...

Thermal adhesives that contain large concentrations of high thermal conductivity filler materials, such as ceramics or metals, are widely used by the electronics industries in a variety of applications. The thermal properties of these materials, such as the thermal contact resistance across a bonded joint and the thermal conductivity of the bulk material, are critical to the selection of the “b...

We have measured the thermal resistance of a 152-nm-diameter carbon nanofiber before and after a platinum layer was deposited on the contacts between the nanofiber and the measurement device. The contact resistance was reduced by the platinum coating for about 9–13% of the total thermal resistance of the nanofiber sample before the platinum coating. At a temperature of 300 K, the axial thermal ...

We present a study on the apparent thermal resistance of metal foams as a thermal interface in electronics cooling applications. Metal foams are considered beneficial for several applications due to its significantly large surface area for a given volume. Porous heat sinks made of aluminum foam have been well studied in the past. It is not only cost effective due to the unique production proces...

Unique specifications of metal foams such as relatively low cost, ultra-low density, high surface-area-to-volume ratio, and most importantly, the ability to mix the passing fluid provide them a great potential for a variety of thermal-fluidics

This paper illustrates an application of a technique for predicting the thermal characteristics of a bidirectional thermocycling device for polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The micromilling chamber is oscillated by a servo motor and contacted with different isothermal heating blocks to successfully amplify the DNA templates. Because a comprehensive database of contact resistance factors does no...

The paper presents an electro-thermal numerical model which can be used for the modelling and optimization of high currents dismountable contacts for dc current. The model is obtained by coupling of the electrokinetic field problem with the thermal field problem. The coupling is carried out by the source term of the differential equation which describes the thermal field. The model allows the c...