Abstract: A battery module including a battery cell and a thermal management system for removing heat from the battery cell. The thermal management system includes two or more unit cells in an array. Each unit cell includes a primary shell comprising a primary phase change material (PCM), and a secondary shell comprising a secondary PCM that is thermally coupled to the primary shell. The battery cell is thermally coupled to the primary shell at a heat transfer interface and the secondary shells of adjacent unit cells in the array are separate.

Abstract: A thermal compensation layer includes a metal inverse opal (MIO) layer that includes a plurality of core-shell phase change (PC) particles encapsulated within a metal of the MIO layer. Each of the core-shell PC particles includes a core that includes a PCM having a PC temperature in a range of from 100° C. to 250° C., and a shell that includes a shell material having a melt temperature greater than the PC temperature of the PCM. A power electronics assembly includes a substrate having a thermal compensation layer formed proximate a surface of the substrate, the thermal compensation layer comprising an MIO layer that includes a plurality of core-shell PC particles encapsulated within a metal of the MIO layer. The power electronics assembly further includes an electronic device bonded to the thermal compensation layer at a first surface of the electronic device.

Abstract: A thermal management system for removing waste heat from a battery cell. The thermal management system includes a unit cell that includes a vapor chamber including an evaporator surface and a condenser surface. The evaporator surface and the condenser surface are fluidly connected by a wick. The unit cell also includes a phase change material (PCM) shell encapsulating a PCM. The evaporator surface is thermally coupled to the battery cell and absorbs waste heat generated by the battery cell. The condenser surface is thermally coupled to the PCM and rejects waste heat to the PCM.

Abstract: System, methods, and other embodiments described herein relate to directing thermal energy within a photonic device. In one embodiment, the photonic device includes an optical component that is temperature sensitive and that provides a different response to light propagated within the optical component according to a present temperature of the optical component. The photonic device includes a heat source disposed at a separating distance from the optical component and that produces thermal energy within the photonic device. The photonic device includes a first thermal guide disposed proximate to the optical component and the heat source and spanning the separating distance. The first thermal guide concentrating the thermal energy from the heat source to the optical component.

Abstract: A particle separator for a turbomachine includes a first portion including a first end and a second end opposite the first end. The turbomachine includes a first wall and a second wall defining a primary fluid passage. The first wall further defines an auxiliary fluid passage. The first end is coupled to the first wall. The second end extends from the first wall into the at least one primary fluid passage and extends in a direction defined by the fluid flow through the primary fluid passage. The second end and the first wall define a fluid diversion passage coupled in flow communication with the primary fluid passage and the auxiliary fluid passage. The fluid diversion passage is configured to divert fluid from the primary fluid passage to the auxiliary fluid passage in a direction at least partially opposed to the fluid flow through the primary fluid passage.

Abstract: An atomizing spray device includes a housing having plural inlets and one or more outlets fluidly coupled with each other by an interior chamber. The inlets include a first inlet shaped to receive a first fluid and a second inlet shaped to receive a slurry of ceramic particles and a second fluid. The interior chamber in the housing is shaped to mix the first fluid received via the first inlet with the slurry received via the second inlet inside the housing to form a mixture in a location between the inlets and the one or more outlets. The interior chamber in the housing also is shaped to direct the mixture formed inside the housing as droplets outside of the housing via the one or more outlets such that, based on a discharged amount of the first fluid in the droplets, the first fluid promotes evaporation of the second fluid as the droplets traverse from the housing toward a surface of a component.

Abstract: An elastomeric triboelectric generator housing structured for incorporation into a wheel for a vehicle is provided. The housing includes a least one cavity having a pair of opposed walls, and a triboelectric generator incorporated into the at least one cavity. The at least one cavity is structured to actuate responsive to application of at least one force to the housing along an axis extending through the at least one cavity and between a central axis of the housing and a circumference of the housing.

Abstract: Systems and methods for providing heating and cooling to a cabin of an autonomous or semiautonomous electric vehicle. A system includes one or more autonomous or semiautonomous electric vehicle components generating thermal energy as a byproduct of operation, a radiator fluidly coupled to the one or more vehicle components and positioned downstream from the one or more vehicle components such that the radiator receives at least a portion of the thermal energy, a thermoelectric cooler thermally coupled to and located downstream from the radiator, and one or more bypass valves that control fluid flow from the radiator such that fluid flows directly to a cabin of the vehicle or flows through the thermoelectric cooler before flowing into the cabin.

Abstract: A 2-in-1 power electronics assembly includes a frame with a lower dielectric layer, an upper dielectric layer spaced apart from the lower dielectric layer, and a sidewall disposed between and coupled to the lower dielectric layer and the upper dielectric layer. The lower dielectric layer includes a lower cooling fluid inlet and the upper dielectric layer includes an upper cooling fluid outlet. A first semiconductor device assembly and a second semiconductor device assembly are included and disposed within the frame. The first semiconductor device is disposed between a first lower metal inverse opal (MIO) layer and a first upper MIO layer, and the second semiconductor device is disposed between a second lower MIO layer and a second upper MIO layer. An internal cooling structure that includes the MIO layers provides double sided cooling for the first semiconductor device and the second semiconductor device.

Abstract: A facility can include a main power source. One or more facility systems can be operatively connected to the main power source. The facility can include a plurality of sensors. The plurality of sensors can be configured to acquire facility data. A plurality of energy harvesters can be operatively connected to the plurality of sensors. The plurality of energy harvesters can be configured to convert energy received in one form into another form of energy. The plurality of energy harvesters can be operatively connected to supply energy to the plurality of sensors. The plurality of sensors can be exclusively powered by energy supplied by the plurality of energy harvesters. Thus, the plurality of sensors are decoupled from the main power source. The facility can be a fixed facility or a mobile facility. The facility can be used for disaster relief or other applications.

Abstract: A thermally managed electrical supply unit is provided. The unit contains an energy unit comprising a battery or a battery pack; a casing of a porous thermally conductive framework comprising a phase change material on at least one surface of the energy unit; at least one heat flux rectifier unit on the thermally conductive framework casing; wherein a surface of the heat flux rectifier opposite to the PF/PCM casing is subject to cooling. Also provided is a method for thermal management of an energy unit comprising absorption of heat from the energy unit within a phase change material, transfer of the heat energy from the phase change material through a heat flux rectifier and removal of the heat transferred across the heat flux rectifier. The flow of heat across the heat flux rectifier is irreversible and the heat flux rectifier acts as an on/off switch to control the heat flow.

Abstract: An atomizing spray nozzle device includes an atomizing zone housing that receives different phases of materials used to form a coating. The atomizing zone housing mixes the different phases of the materials into a two-phase mixture of ceramic-liquid droplets in a carrier gas. The device also includes a plenum housing fluidly coupled with the atomizing housing and extending from the atomizing housing to a delivery end. The plenum housing includes an interior plenum that receives the two-phase mixture of ceramic-liquid droplets in the carrier gas from the atomizing zone housing. The device also includes one or more delivery nozzles fluidly coupled with the plenum chamber. The delivery nozzles provide outlets from which the two-phase mixture of ceramic-liquid droplets in the carrier gas is delivered onto one or more surfaces of a target object as the coating on the target object.

Abstract: A method for fabricating a multi-layer porous wick structure including, providing a first mold set comprising a negative mold and a positive mold, introducing metal particles in the negative mold defining a first porous wick layer, and sintering the metal particles within the negative mold while interfaced with the positive mold to form the first porous wick layer. The method further includes providing a second mold set comprising a negative mold and a positive mold corresponding to the negative mold and assembling the first porous wick layer with the negative mold of the second mold set. The method further includes introducing filler particles into the negative mold of the second mold set to form a sacrificial layer with the first porous wick layer, introducing metal particles in the negative mold of the second mold set with the first porous wick layer and the sacrificial layer and sintering the metal particles, thereby forming the multi-layer porous wick structure.

Abstract: A method of etching features in a silicon wafer includes coating a top surface and a bottom surface of the silicon wafer with a mask layer having a lower etch rate than an etch rate of the silicon wafer, removing one or more portions of the mask layer to form a mask pattern in the mask layer on the top surface and the bottom surface of the silicon wafer, etching one or more top surface features into the top surface of the silicon wafer through the mask pattern to a depth plane located between the top surface and the bottom surface of the silicon wafer at a depth from the top surface, coating the top surface and the one or more top surface features with a metallic coating, and etching one or more bottom surface features into the bottom surface of the silicon wafer through the mask pattern to the target depth plane.

Abstract: Core-coil devices operate by electromagnetic induction and include inductors, transformers, and electromagnets. Cooled core-coil devices include a magnetic core having a channel through it, and a coil wound around the core. Cooled core-coil devices additionally include a coolant loop that carries ferrofluid coolant through the channel and forms a loop with the channel that extends outside the core. Ferrofluid coolant circulates in the loop without a pump due to a thermo-magnetic response to the device's thermal and magnetic field gradients and thereby cools the core while simultaneously adding to the device's inductance.

Abstract: A 2-in-1 power electronics assembly includes a frame with a lower dielectric layer, an upper dielectric layer spaced apart from the lower dielectric layer, and a sidewall disposed between and coupled to the lower dielectric layer and the upper dielectric layer. The lower dielectric layer includes a lower cooling fluid inlet and the upper dielectric layer includes an upper cooling fluid outlet. A first semiconductor device assembly and a second semiconductor device assembly are included and disposed within the frame. The first semiconductor device is disposed between a first lower metal inverse opal (MIO) layer and a first upper MIO layer, and the second semiconductor device is disposed between a second lower MIO layer and a second upper MIO layer. An internal cooling structure that includes the MIO layers provides double sided cooling for the first semiconductor device and the second semiconductor device.

Abstract: A coating system includes a support fixture sized to be partially inserted into one or more openings of a component and a spray nozzle segment device comprising a housing configured to receive a slurry. The device is disposed radially outward of a central axis of the component and is shaped to extend circumferentially about at least part of the central axis of the component. The housing comprises plural delivery nozzles configured to spray the slurry onto a surface of the component. The device is operably coupled with the support fixture such that the fixture maintains a position of the device within the component when the support fixture is partially inserted into one or more openings of the component.

Abstract: A reactive phase spray formulation coating is configured to be disposed on the thermal barrier coating of an article. The reactive phase spray formulation coating comprises a base material and a binder material. The base material has a compliance that is higher than a compliance of the binder material, the binder material has a cohesive strength that is greater than a cohesive strength of the base material, the binder material has an adhesive strength that is greater than an adhesive strength of the base material, and the binder material has a surface area of at least ten square-meters per gram that is greater than a surface area of the base material. The binder material is configured to improve a cohesive strength level, an adhesive strength level, and a compliance of the formulation coating of the thermal barrier coating relative to the formulation coating not including the binder material.

Abstract: Devices configured to direct heat flow are disclosed, as well as methods of forming thereof. A device may include a self-assembling heat flow object. The self-assembling heat flow object may include a material having one or more self-assembling properties that cause the material to react to an environmental stimulus and one or more thermal pathways. An application of the environmental stimulus causes the self-assembling heat flow object to deploy and arrange the one or more thermal pathways for directing thermal energy to one or more locations.

Abstract: An assembly includes at least one heat emitting device and a continuous conformal cooling structure adhering directly to and conforming with surfaces of at least a portion of the at least one heat emitting device. The cooling structure may include a thermally-conductive, electrically-insulative layer adhering directly to surfaces of the at least one heat generating device to provide an electrically nonconductive, continuous, conformal layer covering all such surfaces. An inner metallization layer may be adhered directly to surfaces of at least a portion of the insulative layer. An outer metallization layer may be adhered directly to surfaces of the inner metallization layer to provide a thermally conductive layer covering such surfaces.