Travel to Attend the 12th AIAA/ASME Joint Thermophysics and Heat Transfer Conference (Atlanta, GA, USA, June 25-29, 2018)

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The Thermal Rectification panel will be held at the 12th AIAA/ASME Joint Thermophysics and Heat Transfer Conference, which is a collaboration between AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) and the Heat Transfer Division of ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers). Thermal rectification can have a significant impact in many devices that can benefit from this phenomenon, such as current electronics, by improving passive thermal management and allowing for higher performance. Additional technologiescould be developed in the form of thermal devices like thermal switches, diodes, andregulators, that could be combined to make thermal analogies to electronic circuits for energy,memory, and communications. These envisioned devices will require a full understanding of thermal rectification.Thermal rectification is a phenomenon in which thermal transport is dependent on direction along a single axis, analogous to the p and n junction electrical rectifier (or diode) that allows current to flow in one direction, but not in the other under reasonably low forward and reverse bias. Unlike the electrical rectifier, there have been many mechanisms theorized and demonstrated (at least conceptually) that produce a thermally rectifying effect. Observations based on different mechanisms have been documented as early as in the 1930s and saw a significant increase in interested in the recent years. These mechanisms have one characteristic in common in that they require an asymmetry in the system along the rectifying axis. These asymmetries have been of the form of interfaces between dissimilar materials, gravity, surface emissivity properties, temperature dependence of thermal conductivities, and more, although the realistic effect and its magnitude is still a subject of controversy in several of these.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.