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Job's description

In Germany, 14 percent of electricity consumption is used for refrigeration. This amount is expected to rise steadily in the future. Innovations in this field can therefore make an important contribution to climate and environmental protection.
The young research field of elastocalorics has the potential to provide efficient and environmentally friendly cooling power. Elastocaloric cooling is based on the reversible release and absorption of heat when specific materials are subjected to mechanical stress or stress-relieved. So far, most frequently the material class of shape memory alloys (SMA) has been used and investigated for its elastocaloric effect. In addition to shape memory alloys, elastomers such as cross-linked natural rubber also exhibit the elastocaloric effect. The elastocaloric effect in elastomers is of special interest for environmentally friendly and low-cost cooling applications.

The focus of this work is on the application of rubber-based films. These have the potential to overcome the various challenges associated with elastocaloric cooling, including large adiabatic temperature changes and exceptional fatigue resistance under dynamic loading. Based on these, a demonstrator of an elastocaloric cooling unit will be designed, fabricated and investigated.

The thesis can be written in German or English.

Tasks:

• Material characterization (dynamic tensile testing, IR thermography, thermal
conductivity and heat capacity measurement).
• Simulation of heat transfer (Matlab/Simscape)
• Development, fabrication, commissioning and optimization of a demonstrator

Personal qualification

• Field of study: Mechanical engineering, mechatronics, physics
• Experience in MATLAB/ Simscape,
• LabVIEW (FPGA) advantageous,
• Interested in thermal mechanisms

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