Solid-state elastocaloric cooling device based on shape memory alloys

Research topic/area

Mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics and related programs of study

Type of thesis

Master

Start time

01.04.2025

Application deadline

01.12.2025

Duration of the thesis

6-8 Months

Description

In Germany, refrigeration accounts for 14% of electricity consumption. This proportion is expected to increase steadily in the future. Innovations in cooling technology can therefore make an important contribution to climate and environmental protection.

Elastocaloric cooling is an emerging solid-state cooling technology with the potential to provide environmentally friendly cooling with high efficiency. Currently, superelastic shape memory alloys (SMA) are the most promising elastocaloric materials. They respond to the application and release of stress by self-heating and -cooling, respectively, due to a reversible solid-to-solid phase transformation. SMA films are especially promising for elastocaloric cooling, since they combine a high elastocaloric effect size with highly efficient heat transfer due to the large surface-to-volume ratio of film geometries. In previous work, first SMA film-based elastocaloric cooling demonstrators have been fabricated and tested successfully. The present work intends to extend the demonstrator concept to cascaded and parallel designs to enhance the temperature range and cooling power. The focus is on cooling in the miniature range, such as cooling electronic chips or temperature control of bioanalytical chips.

This is a comprehensive project that offers the opportunity to work with embedded systems while also allowing you to test the measurement setup. Additionally, it provides the potential for you to co-author conference and/or journal publications.

Requirement

Requirements for students

• Your Tasks:
• Characterization of SMA material properties (structure, mechanical, thermal)
• Design development based on lumped element modelling (Matlab/Simulink) And/or
• Prototype development including fabrication technology, performance control and characterization

Faculty departments

• Engineering sciences
  Electrical engineering & information technologies
  Mechanical engineering
• Natural sciences and Technology
  Physics

Supervision

Title, first name, last name

Jingyuan Xu

Organizational unit

Institute of Microstructure Technology, IMT

Email address

jingyuan.xu@kit.edu

Link to personal homepage/personal page

Website

Application via email

Application documents

• Cover letter
• Curriculum vitae

E-Mail Address for application
Senden Sie die oben genannten Bewerbungsunterlagen bitte per Mail an jingyuan.xu@kit.edu


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