Thermal rectification of a vanadium dioxide based conductive thermal diode under transient Dirichlet conditions

Abstract

We focus in this work on analysing the behaviour of a thermal diode and consider its operation in the conductive heat transfer regime. The thermal rectification of a thermal diode made of VO2 and SiO2, is investigated in detail by changing different intrinsic and extrinsic parameters under the Dirichlet boundary conditions. The behaviour of the thermal diode is numerically examined according to each parameter individually. We found that the thermal rectification factor can rise to very high values in the first moments of the transient process before reaching steady-state conditions. This feature makes the study of the thermal diode behaviour under transient conditions very promising to pave the way for a better control of practical thermal management systems.