Technical Papers and Presentations

This paper presents the modeling and simulation of an asymmetric thermoelectric module. The thermoelectric module is characterized by a novel module design and a lager temperature range than conventional high-temperature modules. The materials are boron carbide and titanium diboride ... Read More

In this work the innovative concept is the use of a Cu based metallic foam, characterized by open cell structure, as active element for heat exchangers. The metallic foam, produced by liquid infiltration method, was introduced inside a Cu tube, as base element for the exchanger. In the ... Read More

Ferrofluids have been successfully used in the seals for rotary shafts, but few studies focus on the reciprocating motion seals. Since the completely different operational regimes, previous experiences on the rotary motions could not be directly applied on the cases for reciprocating ... Read More

Designing and constructing a lab-on-a-chip device poses a variety of questions. Transport of all required substances, detection of the analyte and its deposition on a sensor have to be incorporated. Different strategies have been developed to achieve good coverages of the sensor, like ... Read More

Fixed nitrogen is used in many forms ranging from nitric acid to hydrogen cyanide and is used as such for industrial applications. The reactions to produce these products are highly endothermic and favored by high-temperature processing. The most basic route of chemically fixing nitrogen ... Read More

This work falls into the framework of an ESA experiment, which consists of observing the behavior of patterns and structures that can be formed after instability onset in a HFE7100 liquid layer, evaporating into a nitrogen gas flow. This study is performed by a three-dimensional ... Read More

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is composed of four layers (anode, electrolyte compatibility layer and cathode) of different ceramic materials. The anode layer is produced by tape casting, the remaining layers are deposited by screen-printing. The layers are sintered together at high ... Read More

An incremental wear model has been developed using COMSOL Multiphysics® with MATLAB® to predict the evolution of component geometry as a result of wear. Whilst Archard’s wear law is a well-known empirical model for the prediction of wear volume, the design engineer is interested in ... Read More

Woven composites with basalt reinforcement plain 1x1 are examined to define structural mechanics. Woven composites were created by the prepreg technology, 8 layers of plain-weave basalt fabrics were saturated by the precursor, polysiloxane matrix Lukosil®, and joint pressed during ... Read More

A grand variety of microactuator technologies and demonstrators has been introduced during the last years. Of particular interest are the microactuators based on phase change materials and especially paraffin wax, which can volumetrically expand up to 15%, providing high force actuation. ... Read More