Center for Industrial Mathematics and Statistics » REU 2022 – Optimizing Efficiencies in an Electromagnetic Heat Exchanger

Ye Chen

Darcy Milligan

Kiersten Grieco

Nathan Willemsen

Overview

Industrial Sponsor: Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB.

Industrial Liaisons: Dr. Zane Cohick and Dr. Brad Hoff

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Burt Tilley and Dr. Vadim Yakovlev, WPI.

An electromagnetic heat exchanger is a device whose energy source comes from the conversion of radiation to thermal energy within a specialized material system. In this research, we investigate the energy conversion efficiency in two different planar material systems where the radiation propagates normal to the system from one side, while the other is electrically grounded. In each, the loss factor of one or more materials is dependent on the local temperature. The first system consists of two infinite planar slabs with different electrical and thermal properties, each with its own finite thickness. The second system is a single slab which is composed of many thin pairs of materials; the thickness of these material pairs is much smaller than the wavelength of the applied electromagnetic radiation. Using these models, we then apply optimization methods to find the material properties of the systems which results in minimizing the reflection coefficient while maximizing energy absorption or energy transport.