Self-adaptive near-filed thermal stabilizer

Analogous to an electrical circuit, a thermal circuit/calculator relying on the heat current to transfer in-formation has been recently proposed as a substitute for applications in extreme environments, where electronic devices may not work. However, different from the electric circuit which could easily get electrically insulated, the thermal one has to face the challenge of temperature fluctuations from the external environment. Taking advantage of the negative thermal expansion (NTE) characteristics of ZrW2O8 and the high sensitivity of the near-filed thermal radiation (NFTR) between two doped silicon (D-Si) planes to the vacuum distance, a self-adaptive near-field stabilizer is designed with the D-Si plane as the emitter/receiver and ZrW2O8 as the substrate for the emitter in present study. The radiation terminal is driven by the NTE substrate to adjust the vacuum distance to neutralize the temperature change, which stabilizes the near-field thermal radiation. The numerical results, obtained by the fluctuational dissipation theorem, show that the heat flow fluctuation is within 5% with the emitter temperature change in the range of 365-435 K and a total heat flux around 4 kW m(-2). As a comparison, the heat fluctuation could be more than 50% for the case without the NTE substrate. This study also systematically explores the factors affecting the steadiness of the heat flow. The proposed thermal stabilizer could self-regulate the heat flow to keep it stable regardless of external temperature fluctuation, which is essential as one of the basic elements in a thermal circuit and could lay the foundation for thermal calculation. (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.