Ambient Temperature Gradient Research Articles

Detecting Nonadditive Biotic Interactions and Assessing Their Biological Relevance among Temperate Rainforest Trees.

AbstractInteractions between and within abiotic and biotic processes generate nonadditive density-dependent effects on species performance that can vary in strength or direction across environments. If ignored, nonadditivities can lead to inaccurate predictions of species responses to environmental and compositional changes. While there are increasing empirical efforts to test the constancy of pairwise biotic interactions along environmental and compositional gradients, few assess both simultaneously. Using a nationwide forest inventory that spans broad ambient temperature and moisture gradients throughout New Zealand, we address this gap by analyzing the diameter growth of six focal tree species as a function of neighbor densities and climate, as well as neighbor × climate and neighbor × neighbor statistical interactions. The most complex model featuring all interaction terms had the highest predictive accuracy. Compared with climate variables, biotic interactions typically had stronger effects on diameter growth, especially when subjected to nonadditivities from local climatic conditions and the density of intermediary species. Furthermore, statistically strong (or weak) nonadditivities could be biologically irrelevant (or significant) depending on whether a species pair typically interacted under average or more extreme conditions. Our study highlights the importance of considering both the statistical potential and the biological relevance of nonadditive biotic interactions when assessing species performance under global change.

Experimental and numerical study on transportation performance of ionic wind generator with distributed auxiliary heat source

Ionic wind technology can be used to achieve directional airflow transportation and local heat and mass transfer enhancement, which are suitable in the field of food drying. Ionic wind can be coupled with medium- and low-temperature heat sources to achieve collaborative heat and mass transfer while satisfying the requirements of efficient drying and maintaining food quality. However, the distributed heat source introduces ambient temperature gradients. Notably, different ambient temperature gradients of the generator exert obvious effects on the local molecular number as well as particle energy; this can affect the gas transportation performance of the generator, which has not been clarified thus far. Herein, the gas transportation performance of a wire-mesh ionic wind generator operating at different heat-source temperatures is experimentally and numerically investigated. The experimental results show that ionic wind generators operating at normal atmospheric temperature are more beneficial to obtaining a high mass flow rate and local velocity of ionic wind. Additionally, continuously increasing the heat source temperature can improve the transportation performance of ionic wind generators. In the simulation, an electrohydrodynamic (EHD) force is introduced to indicate ionic wind strength. The simulated EHD force reaches the highest value without a temperature difference between the two electrodes. The variation trend of the simulation results is consistent with that of the experimental results. The simulation results emphasize the combined effects of particle energy and air molecule number on ionic wind strength, which can explain the phenomena observed in the experiments. This study thus provides a theoretical guideline for the design and combined application of ionic wind generators and distributed auxiliary heat sources.

Toward Self-Powered Sensing and Thermal Energy Harvesting in High-Performance Composites via Self-Folded Carbon Nanotube Honeycomb Structures.

The development of high-performance self-powered sensors in advanced composites addresses the increasing demands of various fields such as aerospace, wearable electronics, healthcare devices, and the Internet-of-Things. Among different energy sources, the thermoelectric (TE) effect which converts ambient temperature gradients to electric energy is of particular interest. However, challenges remain on how to increase the power output as well as how to harvest thermal energy at the out-of-plane direction in high-performance fiber-reinforced composite laminates, greatly limiting the pace of advance in this evolving field. Herein, we utilize a temperature-induced self-folding process together with continuous carbon nanotube veils to overcome these two challenges simultaneously, achieving a high TE output (21 mV and 812 nW at a temperature difference of 17 °C only) in structural composites with the capability to harvest the thermal energy from out-of-plane direction. Real-time self-powered deformation and damage sensing is achieved in fabricated composite laminates based on a thermal gradient of 17 °C only, without the need of any external power supply, opening up new areas of autonomous self-powered sensing in high-performance applications based on TE materials.

Interfacial Stresses for a Coated Irregularly Shaped Hole Embedded in an Infinite Solid under Point Heat Singularity

Particle-reinforced metals are being developed for advanced heat dissipation applications. However, an irregularly shaped void develops during eutectic solidification and enhances interfacial stress induced by visco-plastic deformation in temperature gradient conditions. An analytical solution to an irregularly shaped coated hole embedded in an infinite substrate under an arbitrarily located heat source or sink is presented. For a coated polygonal hole with any number of edges, a rapidly convergent series solution of the temperature and stress functions is expressed in an elegant form using conformal mapping, the analytic continuation theorem, and the alternation method. The iterations of the trial-and-error method are utilized to obtain the solution for the correction terms. First, temperature contours are obtained to provide an optimal suggestion that a larger thermal conductivity of the coating layer exhibits better heat absorption capacity. Furthermore, interfacial stresses between a coating layer and substrate increase if the strength of a point thermal singularity and thermal mismatch increases. This study provides a detailed explanation for the growth of an irregular void at an ambient temperature gradient.

A simple model of heating and evaporation of droplets on a superhydrophobic surface

A new model for heating and evaporation of a droplet on a superhydrophobic surface is proposed. The model uses the analytical solution to the spherically symmetric heat transfer equation with the source term which is implemented in the numerical code and used at each time step of the calculations. It is assumed that heat supplied by conduction and radiation from the substrate to the droplet is instantaneously and homogeneously distributed throughout the whole droplet volume. Both these assumptions are acceptable only in the case when these heats are much smaller than heat supplied to the droplet from ambient gas by convection. It is shown that in some cases heat supplied to the droplet by conduction is comparable or greater than that supplied to the droplet by convection. This happens predominantly at the final stages of droplet evaporation and in this case the model cannot be used. Another assumption on which the model is based is that the effects of the ambient gas temperature gradient on convection droplet heating can be ignored and that this heating can be considered assuming that the temperature of the ambient gas around the droplet is homogeneous. The model is validated using in-house experimental data and experimental data available from the literature. Good agreement between modelling and experimental results is demonstrated when the assumptions on which the model is based are satisfied.

Thermo-Hydrodynamic Analysis of Low-Temperature Supercritical Helium Spiral-Grooved Face Seals: Large Ambient Temperature Gradient

Hhighly efficient and reliable sealing technology is essential to improve the efficiency of precooled aeroengines. To explore the effects of large ambient temperature gradients on the sealing performance, the thermo-hydrodynamic characteristics of a supercritical helium spiral-grooved face seal were studied numerically, under low-temperature conditions. Considering the real gas effect of helium, the thermal deformations of the seal were analyzed numerically, under different temperature gradients. Additionally, the distributions of the pressure, temperature, and film thickness of the gas film were calculated, and the sealing performances of the seal under a wide range of working conditions were evaluated simultaneously. Results showed that a turning point occurred at the sealing pressure of 1.6 MPa in both the dynamic pressure effect and temperature rise of the gas film under the ambient-temperature gradient, leading to the transformation of the sealing gap, from convergent to divergent. The temperature gradient contributed to decreasing the thermal deformation and improving the sealing performance of the face seal. As the temperature gradient increased, although a mutational phenomenon existed near the sealing temperature of 250 K with both the dynamic pressure effect and the temperature rise, the variation of the opening force was within 120 N and the leakage was more than halved, indicating the broad application prospects of gas face seals in precooled aeroengine systems.

Thermotaxis of mammalian sperm.

Sperm are guided through the female reproductive tract. A temperature difference of about 2°C exists between the storage site and fertilization site of the mammalian oviduct, leading to the hypothesis that sperm can sense and swim towards the oocyte along a rising temperature gradient, known as thermotaxis. Research over the past two decades has reported that sperm feature a sophisticated thermal detection system to detect and track ambient temperature gradients. More recently, thermotaxis is expected to be added to the microfluidic isolation method based on sperm tactic responses for sperm selection. In this article, mammalian sperm thermotaxis is discussed, explaining the underlying behavioural mechanisms and molecular basis, according to the latest research. Finally, this article explores the possible application of sperm thermotaxis in ART.

Effects of hot and humid environments on thermoregulation and aerobic endurance capacity of Laser sailors

Background/ObjectivesThe purpose was to investigate the effects of hot and humid environments on thermoregulation and aerobic endurance capacity and whether high skin temperature serves as a more important thermoregulatory factor affecting aerobic exercise capacity. MethodsA randomized cross-over design was applied to this study, in which nine Laser sailors performed the 6 km rowing test (6 km test) in both a warm (ambient temperature: 23 ± 1.4 °C; relative humidity: 60.5 ± 0.7%; wind speed: 0 km/h; WARM) and hot environment (ambient temperature: 31.8 ± 1.1 °C; relative humidity: 63.5 ± 4.9%; wind speed: 3.5 ± 0.7 km/h; HOT). ResultsThe time for completing 6 km test of HOT group was significantly longer than that of WARM group (P = 0.0014). Mean power of 3–4 km, 4–5 km and 5–6 km were significant lower in HOT group (P = 0.014, P = 0.02, P = 0.003). Gastrointestinal temperature and skin temperature were significantly higher in HOT group during the 6 km test (P = 0.016, P = 0.04). Heat storage at 5 min and 15 min of HOT group were significantly higher than that of WARM group (P = 0.0036; P = 0.0018). Heart rate and physiological strain index of HOT group were significantly higher than that of WARM group during the 6 km test (P = 0.01, P < 0.01). ConclusionWhen skin temperature and core temperature both increased, high skin temperature may be the more important thermoregulatory factor that affected the aerobic endurance performance in hot and humid environments. The high skin temperature narrowed the core to skin temperature gradient and skin to ambient temperature gradient, which may result in greater accumulation of heat storage. The greater heat storage led to the lower muscle power output, which contributed to the reduction of the heat production.

Luminescent upconversion nanoparticles evaluating temperature-induced stress experienced by aquatic organisms owing to environmental variations

SummaryGrowing anthropogenic activities are significantly influencing the environment and especially aquatic ecosystems. Therefore, there is an increasing demand to develop techniques for monitoring and assessing freshwater habitat changes so that interventions can prevent irrevocable damage. We explore an approach for screening the temperature-induced stress experienced by aquatic organisms owing to environmental variations. Luminescent spectra of upconversion [Y2O3: Yb, Er] particles embedded within Caridina multidentata shrimps are measured, while ambient temperature gradient is inducing stress conditions. The inverse linear dependence of the logarithmic ratio of the luminescence intensity provides an effective means for temperature evaluation inside aquatic species in vivo. The measured luminescence shows high photostability on the background of the complete absence of biotissues’ autofluorescence, as well as no obscuration of the luminescence signal from upconversion particles. Current approach of hybrid sensing has a great potential for monitoring variations in aquatic ecosystems driven by climate changes and pollution.

Numerical Study on the Periodicity of Urban Heat Dome Flow

Under calm conditions where the background synoptic wind is weak or absent, the difference between city and rural temperature allows natural convection to develop. The turbulent circulation is also referred as urban heat island circulation or urban heat dome flow. The coupling of buoyancy, inertia, and vertical stability induces a natural periodicity in the urban heat dome flow. The periodicity in urban heat dome flow is often neglected in previous urban heat dome flow research. In this article, a high-precision CFD numerical method is applied, and the city is treated as a homogeneous flat plate with a specific shape. First of all, the real atmosphere model (around 20 km in length scale) are established and validated with water tank experiments. Convergent inflows at lower level and divergent outflows at upper levels can be observed. Then, the instantaneous 3D flow field distribution is analyzed, and the periodicity of the upper outflow region (fout) after reaching the quasi-steady state is determined. Finally, cases with different city diameters (D), regional heat flux (H0), and ambient potential temperature gradients (∂θ/∂z) are designed and solved. A quantitative description of periodicity (fout) and its relationship to buoyancy (B0), inertia (Ud) and vertical stability (N) is presented.

Re-Visiting Acoustic Sounding to Advance the Measurement of Optical Turbulence

Optical turbulence, as determined by the widely accepted practice of profiling the temperature structure constant, CT2, via the measurement of ambient atmospheric temperature gradients, can be found to differ quite significantly when characterizing such gradients via thermal-couple differential temperature sensors as compared to doing so with acoustic probes such as those commonly used in sonic anemometry. Similar inconsistencies are observed when comparing optical turbulence strength derived via CT2 as compared to those through direct optical or imaging measurements of small fluctuations of the index of refraction of air (i.e., scintillation). These irregularities are especially apparent in stable atmospheric layers and during diurnal quiescent periods. Our research demonstrates that when care is taken to properly remove large-scale index of refraction gradients, the sonic anemometer-derived velocity structure constant, Cv2, coupled with the similarly derived turbulence-driven index of refraction and vertical wind shear gradients, provides a refractive index structure constant, Cn2, that can more closely match the optical turbulence strengths inferred by more direct means such as scintillometers or differential image motion techniques. The research also illustrates the utility and robustness of quantifying Cn2 from CT2 at a point using a single sonic anemometer and establishes a clear set of equations to calculate volumetric Cn2 data using instrumentation that measures wind velocities with more spatial/temporal fidelity than temperature.

Evidence that stress-induced changes in surface temperature serve a thermoregulatory function.

The fact that body temperature can rise or fall following exposure to stressors has been known for nearly two millennia; however, the functional value of this phenomenon remains poorly understood. We tested two competing hypotheses to explain stress-induced changes in temperature, with respect to surface tissues. Under the first hypothesis, changes in surface temperature are a consequence of vasoconstriction that occur to attenuate blood loss in the event of injury and serve no functional purpose per se; defined as the 'haemoprotective hypothesis'. Under the second hypothesis, changes in surface temperature reduce thermoregulatory burdens experienced during activation of a stress response, and thus hold a direct functional value: the 'thermoprotective hypothesis'. To understand whether stress-induced changes in surface temperature have functional consequences, we tested predictions of these two hypotheses by exposing black-capped chickadees (n=20) to rotating stressors across an ecologically relevant ambient temperature gradient, while non-invasively monitoring surface temperature (eye region temperature) using infrared thermography. Our results show that individuals exposed to rotating stressors reduce surface temperature and dry heat loss at low ambient temperature and increase surface temperature and dry heat loss at high ambient temperature, when compared with controls. These results support the thermoprotective hypothesis and suggest that changes in surface temperature following stress exposure have functional consequences and are consistent with an adaptation. Such findings emphasize the importance of the thermal environment in shaping physiological responses to stressors in vertebrates, and in doing so, raise questions about their suitability within the context of a changing climate.

The Thermocouple Revisited: The Benedicks and Seebeck Effects

Abstract Through altering the ambient environment of the iron conductor with respect to the copper conductor of an iron-copper thermocouple, the output emf of the thermocouple was reduced by a factor of almost two. This reduction was apparently a result of a Benedicks emf. Such a Benedicks emf was produced here in a continuous iron conductor. The Benedicks emf produced was about half the expected Seebeck emf from the copper-iron couple. The source of the Benedicks emf can be explained as a Seebeck charge separation produced by the effect of ambient radiation in one conductor of the thermocouple, while the effect of ambient radiation was deliberately removed in the other part of the conductor. The effect of ambient radiation was removed by matching the surface temperature gradient of the second part of the conductor point for point with an external (or ambient) temperature gradient. The conclusions of this research contradict the assumption made by William Thomson [1] that the ambient surroundings have no effect on thermocouple behavior. This assumption, which was made almost two hundred years ago, has never been experimentally refuted. The idea of using such a temperature match arose from a lesson learned from observations of directly measured Thomson coefficients by Jacovelli et al. [2]

Silver Telluride Nanowire Assembly for High‐Performance Flexible Thermoelectric Film and Its Application in Self‐Powered Temperature Sensor

AbstractFlexible thermoelectric materials that enable harvesting electricity from human body heat or an ambient temperature gradient have potential applications in self‐powered flexible wearable electronics. The development of more efficient and flexible n‐type thermoelectric materials, however, is highly desired but challenging. Herein, reported is a nylon substrate supported fabric silver telluride (Ag2Te) nanowire network used as flexible n‐type thermoelectric materials, by the combination of vacuum filtrated assembly and mechanical pressing method. The prepared silver telluride nanowire films show optimal thermoelectric properties with the Seebeck coefficient of −129.5 µV K−1 and electrical conductivity of 187.78 S cm−1, leading to the highest power factor of 315.1 µW m−1 K2. Owing to the elimination of Peierls stress in the fabrics interlocking structure, the silver telluride nanowire films exhibit good flexibility, as the thermoelectric properties only have a change below 10% after 500 bending cycles. Based on the silver telluride nanowire film, a flexible self‐powered temperature sensor is fabricated for detecting the temperature from a human finger. The sensor shows high sensitivity that its response time and reset time are about 1.05 and 2.1 s, respectively. The results imply that silver telluride nanowire films have great potential applications in flexible thermoelectric energy conversion and self‐powered temperature sensing.

Exogenous induction of thermogenesis in Arum concinnatum by salicylic acid.

Arum concinnatum Schott is a highly thermogenic species, with the temperature of the appendix exceeding ~10.9°C above the ambient temperature during thermogenesis, whereas the rates of respiration of the male florets in intact inflorescences peak at 0.92μmol s-1 g-1, which is the highest rate so far measured among the plants. Here, we attempt the ex situ exogenous induction of thermogenesis in whole inflorescences and in separate appendices of the spadix, and explore the thermogenic patterns under controlled laboratory conditions of light and temperature. Mature but unopened inflorescences and appendices showed thermogenic responses when treated with salicylic acid (SA), but not when treated with distilled water (control). With regard to light conditions, the responses revealed only one significant difference for inflorescences, which concerns the higher maximum temperature in the continuous light treatment compared with continuous dark. Along the ambient temperature gradient, at the lowest temperature edge individuals remained stable close to ambient temperature and to control. These findings suggest that, in general, ex situ exogenous induction of thermogenesis can be achieved in whole inflorescences and in separate appendices of spadix of A. concinnatum using SA. This study also indicates that SA acts independently of light conditions, while exogenous induction of thermogenesis takes place within an ambient temperature range.

A study into different cell-level cooling strategies for cylindrical lithium-ion cells in automotive applications

Previous research has identified that the ageing rate and performance of lithium-ion cells is negatively influenced by unfavourable cell thermal conditions, specifically, high ambient temperatures and large in-cell temperature gradients. In this paper, the effectiveness of different cell cooling strategies on reducing the in-cell temperature gradient within cylindrical cells is analysed through the development of a 2-D transient bulk layer thermal model displaying anisotropic thermal conductivity. The model is validated against experimental temperature measurements in which the peak error of the simulation was found to be 2% and 5% for the experimental test drive cycle and constant 1C discharge respectively. Results indicate that radial cooling with air or singular tab cooling with liquid may be inadequate in limiting cell temperature gradients to below 5 ℃ for HEV type 32113 cells when subject to 4 loops of the US06 drive cycle.

Extreme climatic events constrain space use and survival of a ground-nesting bird.

Two fundamental issues in ecology are understanding what influences the distribution and abundance of organisms through space and time. While it is well established that broad-scale patterns of abiotic and biotic conditions affect organisms' distributions and population fluctuations, discrete events may be important drivers of space use, survival, and persistence. These discrete extreme climatic events can constrain populations and space use at fine scales beyond that which is typically measured in ecological studies. Recently, a growing body of literature has identified thermal stress as a potential mechanism in determining space use and survival. We sought to determine how ambient temperature at fine temporal scales affected survival and space use for a ground-nesting quail species (Colinus virginianus; northern bobwhite). We modeled space use across an ambient temperature gradient (ranging from -20 to 38°C) through a maxent algorithm. We also used Andersen-Gill proportional hazard models to assess the influence of ambient temperature-related variables on survival through time. Estimated available useable space ranged from 18.6% to 57.1% of the landscape depending on ambient temperature. The lowest and highest ambient temperature categories (<-15°C and >35°C, respectively) were associated with the least amount of estimated useable space (18.6% and 24.6%, respectively). Range overlap analysis indicated dissimilarity in areas where Colinus virginianus were restricted during times of thermal extremes (range overlap=0.38). This suggests that habitat under a given condition is not necessarily a habitat under alternative conditions. Further, we found survival was most influenced by weekly minimum ambient temperatures. Our results demonstrate that ecological constraints can occur along a thermal gradient and that understanding the effects of these discrete events and how they change over time may be more important to conservation of organisms than are average and broad-scale conditions as typically measured in ecological studies.

Temperature Trapping: Energy-Free Maintenance of Constant Temperatures as Ambient Temperature Gradients Change.

It is crucial to maintain constant temperatures in an energy-efficient way. Here we establish a temperature-trapping theory for asymmetric phase-transition materials with thermally responsive thermal conductivities. Then we theoretically introduce and experimentally demonstrate a concept of an energy-free thermostat within ambient temperature gradients. The thermostat is capable of self-maintaining a desired constant temperature without the need of consuming energy even though the environmental temperature gradient varies in a large range. As a model application of the concept, we design and show a different type of thermal cloak that has a constant temperature inside its central region in spite of the changing ambient temperature gradient, which is in sharp contrast to all the existing thermal cloaks. This work has relevance to energy-saving heat preservation, and it provides guidance both for manipulating heat flow without energy consumption and for designing new metamaterials with temperature-responsive or field-responsive parameters in many disciplines such as thermotics, optics, electromagnetics, acoustics, mechanics, electrics, and magnetism.

The effects of plasma inhomogeneity on the nanoparticle coating in a low pressure plasma reactor

A self-consistent model is used to study the surface coating of a collection of charged nanoparticles trapped in the sheath region of a low pressure plasma reactor. The model consists of multi-fluid plasma sheath module, including nanoparticle dynamics, as well as the surface deposition and particle heating modules. The simulation results show that the mean particle radius increases with time and the nanoparticle size distribution is broadened. The mean radius is a linear function of time, while the variance exhibits a quadratic dependence. The broadening in size distribution is attributed to the spatial inhomogeneity of the deposition rate which in turn depends on the plasma inhomogeneity. The spatial inhomogeneity of the ions has strong impact on the broadening of the size distribution, as the ions contribute both in the nanoparticle charging and in direct film deposition. The distribution width also increases with increasing of the pressure, gas temperature, and the ambient temperature gradient.

Hierarchical Bayesian model updating for structural identification

A new probabilistic finite element (FE) model updating technique based on Hierarchical Bayesian modeling is proposed for identification of civil structural systems under changing ambient/environmental conditions. The performance of the proposed technique is investigated for (1) uncertainty quantification of model updating parameters, and (2) probabilistic damage identification of the structural systems. Accurate estimation of the uncertainty in modeling parameters such as mass or stiffness is a challenging task. Several Bayesian model updating frameworks have been proposed in the literature that can successfully provide the “parameter estimation uncertainty” of model parameters with the assumption that there is no underlying inherent variability in the updating parameters. However, this assumption may not be valid for civil structures where structural mass and stiffness have inherent variability due to different sources of uncertainty such as changing ambient temperature, temperature gradient, wind speed, and traffic loads. Hierarchical Bayesian model updating is capable of predicting the overall uncertainty/variability of updating parameters by assuming time-variability of the underlying linear system. A general solution based on Gibbs Sampler is proposed to estimate the joint probability distributions of the updating parameters. The performance of the proposed Hierarchical approach is evaluated numerically for uncertainty quantification and damage identification of a 3-story shear building model. Effects of modeling errors and incomplete modal data are considered in the numerical study.