Shortages of N95 respirators for use by medical personnel have driven consideration of novel conservation strategies, including decontamination for reuse and extended use. Decontamination methods listed as promising by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (vaporous hydrogen peroxide (VHP), wet heat, ultraviolet irradiation (UVI)) and several methods considered for low resource environments (bleach, isopropyl alcohol and detergent/soap) were studied for two commonly used surgical N95 respirators (3M™ 1860 and 1870+ Aura™). Although N95 filtration performance depends on the electrostatically charged electret filtration layer, the impact of decontamination on this layer is largely unexplored. As such, respirator performance following decontamination was assessed based on the fit, filtration efficiency, and pressure drop, along with the relationship between (1) surface charge of the electret layer, and (2) elastic properties of the straps. Decontamination with VHP, wet heat, UVI, and bleach did not degrade fit and filtration performance or electret charge. Isopropyl alcohol and soap significantly degraded fit, filtration performance, and electret charge. Pressure drop across the respirators was unchanged. Modest degradation of N95 strap elasticity was observed in mechanical fatigue testing, a model for repeated donnings and doffings. CDC recommended decontamination methods including VHP, wet heat, and UV light did not degrade N95 respirator fit or filtration performance in these tests. Extended use of N95 respirators may degrade strap elasticity, but a loss of face seal integrity should be apparent during user seal checks. NIOSH recommends performing user seal checks after every donning to detect loss of appropriate fit. Decontamination methods which degrade electret charge such as alcohols or detergents should not be used on N95 respirators. The loss of N95 performance due to electret degradation would not be apparent to a respirator user or evident during a negative pressure user seal check.
Ceramic fiber insulation materials are used in numerous applications (e.g. aerospace, fire protection, and military) for their stability and performance in extreme environments. However, the thermal properties of these materials have not been thoroughly characterized for many of the conditions that they will be exposed to, such as high temperatures, pressures, and alternate gaseous atmospheres. The resulting uncertainty in the material properties can complicate the design of systems using these materials. In this study, the thermal conductivity of two ceramic fiber insulations, Fiberfrax T-30LR laminate and 970-H paper, was measured as a function of atmospheric temperature and compression in an air environment using the transient plane source technique. Furthermore, a model is introduced to account for changes in thermal conductivity with temperature, compression, and ambient gas. The model was tuned to the collected experimental data and results are compared. The tuned model is also compared to published data sets taken in argon, helium, and hydrogen environments and agreement is discussed.
We study the interplay between the contributions of electron thermal flux and interface scattering to the Kapitza conductance across metal-metal interfaces through measurements of thermal conductivity of copper-niobium multilayers. Thermal conductivities of copper-niobium multilayer films of period thicknesses ranging from 5.4 to 96.2 nm and sample thicknesses ranging from 962 to 2677 nm are measured by time-domain thermoreflectance over a range of temperatures from 78 to 500 K. The Kapitza conductances between the Cu and Nb interfaces in multilayer films are determined from the thermal conductivities using a series resistor model and are in good agreement with the electron diffuse mismatch model. Our results for the thermal boundary conductance between Cu and Nb are compared to literature values for the thermal boundary conductance across Al-Cu and Pd-Ir interfaces, and demonstrate that the interface conductance in metallic systems is dictated by the temperature derivative of the electron energy flux in the metallic layers, rather than electron mean free path or scattering processes at the interface.
This report summarizes a project in which the authors sought to develop and deploy: (i) experimental techniques to elucidate the complex, multiscale nature of thermal transport in particle-based materials; and (ii) modeling approaches to address current challenges in predicting performance variability of materials (e.g., identifying and characterizing physical- chemical processes and their couplings across multiple length and time scales, modeling information transfer between scales, and statically and dynamically resolving material structure and its evolution during manufacturing and device performance). Experimentally, several capabilities were successfully advanced. As discussed in Chapter 2 a flash diffusivity capability for measuring homogeneous thermal conductivity of pyrotechnic powders (and beyond) was advanced; leading to enhanced characterization of pyrotechnic materials and properties impacting component development. Chapter 4 describes success for the first time, although preliminary, in resolving thermal fields at speeds and spatial scales relevant to energetic components. Chapter 7 summarizes the first ever (as far as the authors know) application of TDTR to actual pyrotechnic materials. This is the first attempt to actually characterize these materials at the interfacial scale. On the modeling side, new capabilities in image processing of experimental microstructures and direct numerical simulation on complicated structures were advanced (see Chapters 3 and 5). In addition, modeling work described in Chapter 8 led to improved prediction of interface thermal conductance from first principles calculations. Toward the second point, for a model system of packed particles, significant headway was made in implementing numerical algorithms and collecting data to justify the approach in terms of highlighting the phenomena at play and pointing the way forward in developing and informing the kind of modeling approach originally envisioned (see Chapter 6). In both cases much more remains to be accomplished.
ASME 2012 Heat Transfer Summer Conf. Collocated with the ASME 2012 Fluids Engineering Div. Summer Meeting and the ASME 2012 10th Int. Conf. on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels, HT 2012
We will present experimental and computational investigations of the thermal performance of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) as a function of the surrounding gas pressure. Lowering the pressure in MEMS packages reduces gas damping, providing increased sensitivity for certain MEMS sensors; however, such packaging also dramatically affects their thermal performance since energy transfer to the environment is substantially reduced. High-spatial-resolution Raman thermometry was used to measure the temperature profiles on electrically heated, polycrystalline silicon bridges that are nominally 10 microns wide, 2.25 microns thick, 12 microns above the substrate, and either 200 or 400 microns long in nitrogen atmospheres with pressures ranging from 0.05 to 625 Torr. Finite element modeling of the thermal behavior of the MEMS bridges is performed and compared to the experimental results. Noncontinuum gas effects are incorporated into the continuum finite element model by imposing temperature discontinuities at gas-solid interfaces that are determined from noncontinuum simulations. The experimental and simulation results indicate that at pressures below 0.5 Torr the gas-phase heat transfer is negligible compared to heat conduction through the thermal actuator legs. As the pressure increases above 0.5 Torr, the gas-phase heat transfer becomes more significant. At ambient pressures, gas-phase heat transfer drastically impacts the thermal performance. The measured and simulated temperature profiles are in qualitative agreement in the present study. Quantitative agreement between experimental and simulated temperature profiles requires accurate knowledge of temperature-dependent thermophysical properties, the device geometry, and the thermal accommodation coefficient.
Understanding the physics of phonon transport at small length scales is increasingly important for basic research in nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, nanomechanics, and thermoelectrics. We conducted several studies to develop an understanding of phonon behavior in very small structures. This report describes the modeling, experimental, and fabrication activities used to explore phonon transport across and along material interfaces and through nanopatterned structures. Toward the understanding of phonon transport across interfaces, we computed the Kapitza conductance for {Sigma}29(001) and {Sigma}3(111) interfaces in silicon, fabricated the interfaces in single-crystal silicon substrates, and used picosecond laser pulses to image the thermal waves crossing the interfaces. Toward the understanding of phonon transport along interfaces, we designed and fabricated a unique differential test structure that can measure the proportion of specular to diffuse thermal phonon scattering from silicon surfaces. Phonon-scale simulation of the test ligaments, as well as continuum scale modeling of the complete experiment, confirmed its sensitivity to surface scattering. To further our understanding of phonon transport through nanostructures, we fabricated microscale-patterned structures in diamond thin films.
This report summarizes the work completed during FY2007 and FY2008 for the LDRD project ''Hybrid Plasma Modeling''. The goal of this project was to develop hybrid methods to model plasmas across the non-continuum-to-continuum collisionality spectrum. The primary methodology to span these regimes was to couple a kinetic method (e.g., Particle-In-Cell) in the non-continuum regions to a continuum PDE-based method (e.g., finite differences) in continuum regions. The interface between the two would be adjusted dynamically ased on statistical sampling of the kinetic results. Although originally a three-year project, it became clear during the second year (FY2008) that there were not sufficient resources to complete the project and it was terminated mid-year.
This report documents technical work performed to complete the ASC Level 2 Milestone 2841: validation of thermal models for a prototypical MEMS thermal actuator. This effort requires completion of the following task: the comparison between calculated and measured temperature profiles of a heated stationary microbeam in air. Such heated microbeams are prototypical structures in virtually all electrically driven microscale thermal actuators. This task is divided into four major subtasks. (1) Perform validation experiments on prototypical heated stationary microbeams in which material properties such as thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity are measured if not known and temperature profiles along the beams are measured as a function of electrical power and gas pressure. (2) Develop a noncontinuum gas-phase heat-transfer model for typical MEMS situations including effects such as temperature discontinuities at gas-solid interfaces across which heat is flowing, and incorporate this model into the ASC FEM heat-conduction code Calore to enable it to simulate these effects with good accuracy. (3) Develop a noncontinuum solid-phase heat transfer model for typical MEMS situations including an effective thermal conductivity that depends on device geometry and grain size, and incorporate this model into the FEM heat-conduction code Calore to enable it to simulate these effects with good accuracy. (4) Perform combined gas-solid heat-transfer simulations using Calore with these models for the experimentally investigated devices, and compare simulation and experimental temperature profiles to assess model accuracy. These subtasks have been completed successfully, thereby completing the milestone task. Model and experimental temperature profiles are found to be in reasonable agreement for all cases examined. Modest systematic differences appear to be related to uncertainties in the geometric dimensions of the test structures and in the thermal conductivity of the polycrystalline silicon test structures, as well as uncontrolled nonuniform changes in this quantity over time and during operation.
In many direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) simulations, the majority of computation time is consumed after the flowfield reaches a steady state. This situation occurs when the desired output quantities are small compared to the background fluctuations. For example, gas flows in many microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have mean speeds more than two orders of magnitude smaller than the thermal speeds of the molecules themselves. The current solution to this problem is to collect sufficient samples to achieve the desired resolution. This can be an arduous process because the error is inversely proportional to the square root of the number of samples so we must, for example, quadruple the samples to cut the error in half. This work is intended to improve this situation by employing more advanced techniques, from fields other than solely statistics, for determining the output quantities. Our strategy centers on exploiting information neglected by current techniques, which collect moments in each cell without regard to one another, values in neighboring cells, nor their evolution in time. Unlike many previous acceleration techniques that modify the method itself, the techniques examined in this work strictly post-process so they may be applied to any DSMC code without affecting its fidelity or generality. Many potential methods are drawn from successful applications in a diverse range of areas, from ultrasound imaging to financial market analysis. The most promising methods exploit relationships between variables in space, which always exist in DSMC due to the absence of shocks. Disparate techniques were shown to produce similar error reductions, suggesting that the results shown in this report may be typical of what is possible using these methods. Sample count reduction factors of approximately three to five were found to be typical, although factors exceeding ten were shown on some variables under some techniques.
Modeling microscale heat transfer with the computational-heat-transfer code Calore is discussed. Microscale heat transfer problems differ from their macroscopic counterparts in that conductive heat transfer in both solid and gaseous materials may have important noncontinuum effects. In a solid material, three noncontinuum effects are considered: ballistic transport of phonons across a thin film, scattering of phonons from surface roughness at a gas-solid interface, and scattering of phonons from grain boundaries within the solid material. These processes are modeled for polycrystalline silicon, and the thermal-conductivity values predicted by these models are compared to experimental data. In a gaseous material, two noncontinuum effects are considered: ballistic transport of gas molecules across a thin gap and accommodation of gas molecules to solid conditions when reflecting from a solid surface. These processes are modeled for arbitrary gases by allowing the gas and solid temperatures across a gas-solid interface to differ: a finite heat transfer coefficient (contact conductance) is imposed at the gas-solid interface so that the temperature difference is proportional to the normal heat flux. In this approach, the behavior of gas in the bulk is not changed from behavior observed under macroscopic conditions. These models are implemented in Calore as user subroutines. The user subroutines reside within Sandia's Source Forge server, where they undergo version control and regression testing and are available to analysts needing these capabilities. A Calore simulation is presented that exercises these models for a heated microbeam separated from an ambient-temperature substrate by a thin gas-filled gap. Failure to use the noncontinuum heat transfer models for the solid and the gas causes the maximum temperature of the microbeam to be significantly underpredicted.
A concurrent computational and experimental investigation of thermal transport is performed with the goal of improving understanding of, and predictive capability for, thermal transport in microdevices. The computational component involves Monte Carlo simulation of phonon transport. In these simulations, all acoustic modes are included and their properties are drawn from a realistic dispersion relation. Phonon-phonon and phonon-boundary scattering events are treated independently. A new set of phonon-phonon scattering coefficients are proposed that reflect the elimination of assumptions present in earlier analytical work from the simulation. The experimental component involves steady-state measurement of thermal conductivity on silicon films as thin as 340nm at a range of temperatures. Agreement between the experiment and simulation on single-crystal silicon thin films is excellent, Agreement for polycrystalline films is promising, but significant work remains to be done before predictions can be made confidently. Knowledge gained from these efforts was used to construct improved semiclassical models with the goal of representing microscale effects in existing macroscale codes in a computationally efficient manner.
The Microsystems Subgrid Physics project is intended to address gaps between developing high-performance modeling and simulation capabilities and microdomain specific physics. The initial effort has focused on incorporating electrostatic excitations, adhesive surface interactions, and scale dependent material and thermal properties into existing modeling capabilities. Developments related to each of these efforts are summarized, and sample applications are presented. While detailed models of the relevant physics are still being developed, a general modeling framework is emerging that can be extended to incorporate evolving material and surface interaction modules.