Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system of controlling flow of a flowable material including interposing an automatic magnetic valve comprising a magnetic actuator moveable in a valve body relative to a flow path for the flowable material without any on-board magnetic field source for actuating movement of the magnetic actuator in the valve body, or control circuit or electrical power source; selecting operating state of the valve to normally-open or normally-closed by configuration of the restoring force component relative to the magnetic actuator; positioning the valve relative to an off-board magnetic field to effectively take advantage of a direction and magnitude of the off-board magnetic field; and operatively connecting and controlling a flow of the flowable material through the valve with the off-board magnetic field influence on the on-board magnetic actuator.

Abstract: The elastocaloric effect underpins a promising solid-state heat pumping technology that, when adopted for commercial and residential applications, can revolutionize the cooling and heating industry due to low environmental impact and substantial energy savings. Known operational demonstration devices based on the elastocaloric effect suffer from low endurance of materials and, in most experimental systems, from large footprints due to bulky actuators required to provide sufficient forces and displacements. We demonstrate a new approach which has the potential to enable a more effective exploitation of the elastocaloric effect by reducing the forces required for actuation. Thin strips of NiTi were incorporated into composite structures with base polymer, such that bending the structures results in either exclusively compression or exclusively tension applied to the elastocaloric strips.