Transitional material on the effectiveness of Thermal RectifierL. Jiaxin, January 12th, 2023, Thermal dynamics, USC

Thermal rectifiers have been gathering significant attention due to their potential applications in thermal regulation and thermal computation paradigms.  We study paraffin wax-based thermal diode and its rectifying characteristics under transient boundary conditions. Due to the phase transition of wax around 48 C, the thermal conductivity of wax exhibits nonlinear dependence on temperature. As a result, we experimentally observe diode-like behavior.

We envision paper-based small-scale thermal diodes. Using simulations we study the transient response of the non-linear thermal diode. We study the effect of time-dependent temperature input on the output temperature. The effect of geometric parameters and paper to wax ratio is studied on the transient performance of the rectifier.