Local Temperature Control Research Articles

Development of a root-zone temperature control system using air-source heat pump and its impact on the growth and yield of paprika.

By developing and implementing a local temperature control system, such as a root zone, with a high energy efficiency heat source, we can ensure both yield and energy efficiency against extreme temperatures. This system, designed with practicality in mind, has a remarkably positive impact on paprika plants' growth and yield in greenhouse cultivation. In the summer season, paprika plants were grown with no cooling, nutrient solution cooling (NSC) and the combination of NSC and substrate surround cooling (SSC) (NSC + SSC). In the case of SSC, cooled water circulated through the pipe surrounding the substrate to lower the substrate temperature. The cooling system maintains the nutrient solution temperature at 18 °C and the circulating water temperature at the system in the winter season; the paprika plants were grown with no heating (NH), nutrient solution heating (NSH) and the combination of NSH and substrate surround heating (SSH) (NSH + SSH). The heating system maintains the nutrient solution temperature at 25 °C and the circulating water temperature at 30 °C. In the summer, the root fresh and dry weights, stem fresh and dry weights, stem length and node number were increased in the NSC + SSC. In the winter season, the stem fresh and dry weights, leaf area and leaf fresh and dry weights were increased in the NSH + SSH. In both seasons, root-zone temperature control increased the fruit quality and yield. The result indicates that this easy-to-install root-zone temperature control system can be applied to the commercial greenhouse to secure paprika growth and yield in year-round cultivation.

Experimental evaluation of localized air temperature profile and performance of serpentine copper tube heat exchanger for energy-saving crop cultivation

The objective of this study is to examine the localized air temperature profile and heat transfer performance of a serpentine copper tube heat exchanger. Particularly, the air temperature nearby the plants is controlled by the heat exchanger. The novelty of this study is to provide localized climate control only near the plants targeting periodic air temperature control with the proposed heat exchanger. This study focuses on heating and cooling for cultivation in temperate and tropical regions. In contrast to fin-and-tube heat exchangers, the serpentine heat exchanger has a simple design, provides minimal shade for plants, and is easy to maintain. This study was conducted in a laboratory. The experimental system was constructed under with the assumption that a part of actual plant cultivation was being left out. The experiments were implemented by varying the experimental operating conditions such as the inlet fluid temperature and fluid flow rate in the heat exchanger. The pressure drop in the heat exchanger was also measured. The results revealed that this heat exchanger could provide localized air temperature control. The maximum air temperature difference can be obtained at approximately 12 °C during cooling and heating from their initial air temperature even though the heat exchange is simple. The effects of decreasing the inlet fluid temperature for cooling and increasing the inlet fluid temperature for heating were more dominant than the effect of the flow rate. This simple, low-maintenance, and low-cost serpentine copper tube heat exchanger can effectively provide alternate heating and cooling for plant cultivation.

Limits of Non‐invasive Enzymatic Activation by Local Temperature Control (Small 30/2024)

Limits of Non‐invasive Enzymatic Activation by Local Temperature Control (Small 30/2024)

Effect of Local Temperature Control on Fruit Maturation and Quality in Strawberry ‘Koiminori’

Effect of Local Temperature Control on Fruit Maturation and Quality in Strawberry ‘Koiminori’

Local temperature control of magnon frequency and direction of supercurrents in a magnon Bose–Einstein condensate

The creation of temperature variations in magnetization, and hence in the frequencies of the magnon spectrum in laser-heated regions of magnetic films, is an important method for studying Bose–Einstein condensation of magnons, magnon supercurrents, Bogoliubov waves, and similar phenomena. In our study, we demonstrate analytically, numerically, and experimentally that, in addition to the magnetization variations, it is necessary to consider the connected variations of the demagnetizing field. In the case of a heat-induced local minimum of the saturation magnetization, the combination of these two effects results in a local increase in the minimum frequency value of the magnon dispersion at which the Bose–Einstein condensate emerges. As a result, a magnon supercurrent directed away from the hot region is formed.

Limits of Non-invasive Enzymatic Activation by Local Temperature Control.

Enzymatic activity depends on and can therefore be regulated by temperature. Selective modulation of the activity of different enzymes in one reaction pot would require temperature control local to each type of enzyme. It has been suggested previously that immobilization of enzyme on magnetic nanoparticles and exposing them to alternating magnetic field can enhance the reaction rate. This enhancement has been explained as being mediated by temperature increase caused by dissipation of the absorbed field energy in the form of heat. However, the possibility of spatially limiting this temperature increase on the microscale has been questioned. Here, it is investigated whether an activity enhancement of the enzyme sucrose phosphorylase immobilized on magnetic beads can be achieved, how this effect is related to the increase in temperature, and whether temperature differences within one reaction pot could be generated in this way. It is found that alternating magnetic field stimulation leads to increased enzymatic activity fully attributable to the increase of bulk temperature. Both theoretical analysis and experimental data indicate that no local heating near the particle surface takes place. It is further concluded that relevant increase of surface temperature can be obtained only with macroscopic, millimeter-sized, magnetic particles.

Enhancing stability in thin-walled part production with L-DED wire using an adaptive controller

Laser-based direct energy deposition (L-DED) with metal wire is an efficient additive manufacturing process known for its cleanliness, user-friendliness, and cost-effectiveness. Nonetheless, heat build-up, especially in thin-walled parts, leads to geometric deviations and process instabilities due to limited heat dissipation. Closed-loop control of deposition height and local temperature addresses this issue. However, traditional controllers like PID controllers with fixed dynamics cannot adequately handle the long-term drifts inherent in the system dynamics. This study introduces an adaptive controller that dynamically adjusts the parameters for effective L-DED control using optical coherence tomography for the measurement of the deposition height and a coaxial camera for the determination of the temperature from thermal radiation. The control variables include the feed speed of the wire for material input and the laser power to control the deposition height and temperature. Our approach reduces deviations of the wall’s height by a factor of 10 and enables defect-free fabrication of thin-walled parts. This underscores the efficacy of our control system in enhancing L-DED.

Evaluation of a self‐optimizing local mold temperature control for inline warpage reduction of injection molded parts

AbstractDimensional accuracy is a highly important quality criterion for injection molded parts and due to the decreasing tolerance criteria an ongoing issue for mold makers, part designers and manufacturers. Variations in the molding process regarding temperature, pressure and thus the specific volume are leading to inner stress distributions within the part, which ultimately cause warpage. To reduce warpage, a homogenization of the local melt properties, such as the temperature, cooling rate or specific volume is necessary. To be able to manipulate these melt properties locally, a mold with a highly segmented temperature control, consisting of 18 heating ceramics and carbon dioxide expansion chambers was designed. This work seeks to reduce warpage using a newly developed control loop that adjusts target values for the upcoming molding cycle while considering the control error of the previous cycle. The self‐optimizing control loop‐ aiming to homogenize the local mold temperatures over multiple cycles‐ was evaluated in experimental trials. Test specimens were produced, and measured for warpage. Compared to the reference (no control), the warpage of a plate‐shaped geometry was reduced by 10 % with the mold temperature homogenization approach.

Thermal performance analysis and burning questions of refrigerant direct cooling for electric vehicle battery

Refrigerant direct cooling technology has been gaining attention due to its advantages of simple system composition and high cooling efficiency, but its temperature control performance does not have advantages over mature liquid cooling in industrial applications, reasons for which should be discovered. This paper proposes a novel discrete model based on an electro-thermal coupling method and thermal resistance network to analyze the local temperature control performance of refrigerant direct cooling and liquid cooling systems under real operating scenarios with acceptable computing time and accuracy. The results show that the phase change of the refrigerant in the refrigerant direct cooling plate significantly affects the temperature control performance. The vapour-liquid two-phase zone has a high heat transfer capability, which can dissipate heat well and maintain a small temperature difference with the maximum temperature of the battery reduced by 28.3% compared with the liquid cooling system. There is a serious heat transfer deterioration in the superheated gaseous zone, causing a significant increase in the local battery temperature, and the maximum temperature difference is much higher than that in the liquid cooling system. When the refrigerant switches from two-phase to single-phase under 2C charging condition, the heat transfer coefficient reduces by roughly 73.6%, which causes the accompanying battery unit temperature to rise by about 12 ∼ 14 °C. Besides, the low refrigerant temperature will cause a large temperature difference in the vertical direction of the battery, which restricts the application of the refrigerant direct cooling system in practice. When the evaporation pressure increases from 300 kPa to 500 kPa, the temperature difference will decrease from 14.1 °C to 8.8 °C which is a 37.6% reduction. Through an in-depth analysis of the local temperature distribution of battery units, two burning questions were identified which deteriorate the temperature control performance of the refrigerant direct cooling system and results can provide directions for performance improvement.

On-Chip Heater Design and Control Methodology for Reliability Testing Applications Requiring Over 300°C Local Temperatures

This paper presents the design details and control methodologies for on-chip heaters that can provide fast and accurate local temperature control for reliability testing applications. The on-chip heater uses the Joule heating effect of a metal or poly line to heat the surrounding devices-under-test (DUT) to a target temperature as high as 300∘C. Many generations of on-chip heaters, including different heater positions, heater areas, and heater layers, have been demonstrated in technology nodes from 350nm to 16nm. To accurately operate the heater and extend the heater’s operation lifetime for long-term reliability testing, we have also developed control methodologies for precise and reliable heater control.

Temperature Control Load Demand Response Control Strategy Considering User's Willingness Difference

Considering the pressure of communication facilities, the difference in willingness to participate, privacy protection, and other factors, a temperature control load demand response control strategy based on signal broadcasting considering the difference in user willingness is proposed. The control strategy is divided into the aggregator side and the local temperature control load unit side and its response index are sent by the aggregator to all temperature control load units in the form of signal broadcasting. In this control strategy, considering the variety of temperature control load units and different temperature control intervals, a universal temperature normalization value is established. The user participation willingness coefficient is introduced, and the expression of the actual participation probability of the temperature control load is constructed. According to the comparison result with the random number, whether to start or stop the temperature control component is selected. Finally, the overall application flow of temperature control load demand response is designed, and the effectiveness of the strategy is verified by MATLAB simulation.

Analysis of Skyrmion Shuffling Chamber Stochasticity for Neuromorphic Computing Applications

In this study, micromagnetic simulations of a magnetic skyrmion reshuffling chamber for probabilistic computing applications are performed. The skyrmion shuffling chamber is modeled with a custom current density masking technique to capture current density variation, grain boundary variations, and anisotropy changes. The results show that the skyrmion oscillatory dynamics contribute to the system's stochasticity, allowing uncorrelated signals to be achieved with a single chamber. Our findings indicate that uncorrelated signals are generally achieved at all temperatures simulated, with the skyrmion diameter playing a role in the resulting stochasticity. Furthermore, we find that local temperature control has the benefit of not affecting the overall skyrmion diameter, while still perturbing the skyrmion trajectory. The results from varying chamber size, global temperature, and local temperature are analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) and p-value. This research contributes to the development of tunable probabilistic computing devices and artificial synapses using magnetic skyrmions.

Functionalized manganese iron oxide nanoparticles: a dual potential magneto-chemotherapeutic cargo in a 3D breast cancer model.

Localized heat generation from manganese iron oxide nanoparticles (MIONPs) conjugated with chemotherapeutics under the exposure of an alternating magnetic field (magneto-chemotherapy) can revolutionize targeted breast cancer therapy. On the other hand, the lack of precise control of local temperature and adequate MIONP distribution in laboratory settings using the conventional two-dimensional (2D) cellular models has limited its further translation in tumor sites. Our current study explored advanced 3D in vitro tumor models as a promising alternative to replicate the complete range of tumor characteristics. Specifically, we have focused on investigating the effectiveness of MIONP-based magneto-chemotherapy (MCT) as an anticancer treatment in a 3D breast cancer model. To achieve this, chitosan-coated MIONPs (CS-MIONPs) are synthesized and functionalized with an anticancer drug (doxorubicin) and a tumor-targeting aptamer (AS1411). CS-MIONPs with a crystallite size of 16.88 nm and a specific absorption rate (SAR) of 181.48 W g-1 are reported. In vitro assessment of MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines in 2D and 3D cell cultures demonstrated anticancer activity. In the 2D and 3D cancer models, the MIONP-mediated MCT reduced cancer cell viability to about 71.48% and 92.2%, respectively. On the other hand, MIONP-mediated MCT under an AC magnetic field diminished spheroids' viability to 83.76 ± 2%, being the most promising therapeutic modality against breast cancer.

Magneto-Induced Hyperthermia and Temperature Detection in Single Iron Oxide Core-Silica/Tb3+/Eu3+(Acac) Shell Nano-Objects.

Multifunctional nano-objects containing a magnetic heater and a temperature emissive sensor in the same nanoparticle have recently emerged as promising tools towards personalized nanomedicine permitting hyperthermia-assisted treatment under local temperature control. However, a fine control of nano-systems’ morphology permitting the synthesis of a single magnetic core with controlled position of the sensor presents a main challenge. We report here the design of new iron oxide core–silica shell nano-objects containing luminescent Tb3+/Eu3+-(acetylacetonate) moieties covalently anchored to the silica surface, which act as a promising heater/thermometer system. They present a single magnetic core and a controlled thickness of the silica shell, permitting a uniform spatial distribution of the emissive nanothermometer relative to the heat source. These nanoparticles exhibit the Tb3+ and Eu3+ characteristic emissions and suitable magnetic properties that make them efficient as a nanoheater with a Ln3+-based emissive self-referencing temperature sensor covalently coupled to it. Heating capacity under an alternating current magnetic field was demonstrated by thermal imaging. This system offers a new strategy permitting a rapid heating of a solution under an applied magnetic field and a local self-referencing temperature sensing with excellent thermal sensitivity (1.64%·K−1 (at 40 °C)) in the range 25–70 °C, good photostability, and reproducibility after several heating cycles.

Comparison of Application Effects of Capillary Radiation Heat Pump and Electric Heating Wire in Greenhouse Seedling Cultivation

Heat pumps with water as heat exchange medium applied in greenhouse heating have not been used for vegetable seedling cultivation. In this work, a multi-connected direct expansion capillary radiation heat pump (MDCRHP) was designed for vegetable seedling cultivation, and a closed local temperature control (CLTC) method was proposed to accurately control air and substrate temperatures in seedling beds, enhance the heating effect and reduce the equipment cost. The results show that the CLTC method can achieve good heating effect and quickly raise air/substrate temperature at a speed of 1 °C/min from 8 °C to about 20 °C within 12 min. The air and substrate temperature fields in the seedling beds were evenly distributed. The temperature differences at different horizontal positions and different heights were less than 1 °C, and the relative humidity was 100%, which is conducive to vegetable grafting seedling. It can be concluded from test results that the MDCRHP had strong adaptability for greenhouse heating and was obviously superior to the electric heating wire (EWH). The output capacity of the compressor can be controlled by adjusting the operation frequency to meet the temperature requirements at different stages of seedling cultivation. Under the conditions of similar external ambient temperature and heating effect in the seedling beds, the energy saving rate of the MDCRHP was 47–50.7% compared with the EWH. The cost of the MDCRHP is about 7.2% lower than that of the conventional heat pump. It takes 3–3.5 years to recover the equipment investment.

Energy Management in Buildings: Lessons Learnt for Modeling and Advanced Control Design

This paper presents a comparative analysis of different modeling and control techniques that can be used to tackle the energy efficiency and management problems in buildings. Multiple resources are considered, from generation to storage, distribution and delivery. In particular, it is shown what are the real needs and advantages of adopting different techniques, based on different applications, type of buildings, boundary conditions. This contribution is based widely on the experience performed by the authors in the recent years in dealing with existing residential, commercial and tertiary filed buildings, with application ranging from local temperature control up to smart grids where buildings are seen as an active node of the grid thanks to their ability to shape the thermal and electrical profile in real time. As for control models, a wide range of modeling techniques are here investigated and compared, from linear time-invariant models, to time-varying, to nonlinear ones. Similarly, control techniques include adaptive ones and real-time predictive ones.

Stable Flexible Transparent Electrodes for Localized Heating of Lab‐on‐a‐Chip Devices

AbstractIn situ biological observations require stable, accurate, and local temperature control of specimen. Several heating elements are coupled with microfluidic systems, but few of them are transparent to visible light and therefore compatible with microscopic observation. Traditional transparent electrodes, such as indium tin oxide, still suffer from high fabrication cost and brittleness, which is not fully compatible to emerging microfluidic devices. Here, a lightweight, low‐cost, flexible transparent heater based on percolating silver nanowire networks, protected with a transparent zinc oxide film, for the in situ monitoring of biological experiments is proposed. Using the fluorescence of dyes bound to double‐stranded DNA to monitor its temperature in situ, it is demonstrated that such nanocomposites allow rapid and reproducible heating under low applied voltage. Furthermore, selective heating is achieved in different zones of the same microchannel or for adjacent microchannels of the chip heating at different temperatures, with a single transparent heater and bias.

Internal Gas-Assisted Mold Temperature Control for Improving the Filling Ability of Polyamide 6 + 30% Glass Fiber in the Micro-Injection Molding Process.

In micro-injection molding, the plastic filling in the cavity is limited by the frozen layer due to the rapid cooling of the hot melt when it comes into contact with the surface of the cavity at a lower temperature. This problem is more serious with composite materials, which have a higher viscosity than pure materials. Moreover, this issue is also more serious with composite materials that have a higher weight percentage of glass filer. In this article, a pre-heating step with the internal gas heating method was used to heat the cavity surface to a high temperature before the filling step to reduce the frozen layer and to improve the filling ability of the composite material (polyamide 6 + 30% glass fiber) in the micro-injection molding process. To heat the cavity surface, an internal gas-assisted mold temperature control (In-GMTC) system was used with a pulsed cooling system. We assessed different mold insert thicknesses (t) and gaps between the gas gate and the heating surface (G) to achieve rapid mold surface temperature control. The heating process was observed using an infrared camera, and the temperature distribution and the heating rate were analyzed. Thereafter, along with the local temperature control, the In-GMTC was used for the micro-injection molding cycle. The results show that, with a gas temperature of 300 °C and a gas gap of 3.5 mm, the heating rate reached 8.6 °C/s. The In-GMTC was also applied to the micro-injection molding process with a part thickness of 0.2 mm. It was shown that the melt flow length had to reach 24 mm to fill the cavity completely. The results show that the filling ability of the composite material increased from 65.4% to 100% with local heating at the melt inlet area when the gas temperature rose from 200 to 400 °C with a 20 s heating cycle.

A flexible carbon fibre-based electrothermal film for fast actuation of shape memory alloy sheets

Two-dimensional shape memory alloy (SMA) structures have great potential in intelligent and highly flexible robots. However, they have challenges in direct electric heating. This paper proposes a solution to heat SMA sheets using carbon fibres as surface heat sources and indirectly transmits Joule heat generated by the carbon fibres to the SMA sheets. The preparation process of the carbon fibre-based thermoelectric composite film is illustrated in this study. The effect of heat source (carbon fibre) distribution on heat transfer characteristics and the temperature field of the SMA surface is simulated. Then, a functional prototype integrated thermoelectric film and flexible SMA is fabricated, and its effectiveness is verified by local and global activation, respectively. The results show that the composite structure can recover deformation rapidly in 2 s with only 0.7 A running current (applied to each carbon fibre). In addition, the local temperature control method can also realize distributed (spatial dimension) and sequential (temporal dimension) control of the structure. The proposed solution is expected to expand further the design and control of complex, intelligent structures with the development of 4D printing technology.

Analysis of Micro-Climate and Thermal Comfort in Campus Area (A Case Study: Unissula Campus, Kaligawe Semarang)

The dynamics of air temperature cause thermal comfort to be unstable in the context of an urban micro-climate. One of the places affected by the urban micro-climate is the campus of Unissula. It lies on the main transportation route of the north coast of Central Java. To create a comfortable space in the campus environment, a local scale air temperature control method is required, one of which is the provision of green open spaces (GOS). Scenarios for providing green open space based on micro-climate dynamics must be developed to create thermal comfort. This study aimed to identify and analyze the correlation between micro-climate and thermal comfort based on the existing parameters. The research methodology employed a rationalistic quantitative deductive approach with micro-climate and thermal comfort variables, as well as rationalistic descriptive analysis technique. According to the findings of this study, the comfort of Unissula campus meets the criteria for morning air temperature of 25.42°C, daytime 31.35 °C, evening 29.92 °C. The morning humidity is relatively 73.92%, the daytime is 51.50%, and the evening is 60.57%. The thermal comfort level is moderately partly comfortable.