SBIR Phase I: Shape Memory Alloy Thermal Energy Harvesting System

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响和商业潜力将解决许多应用领域持续低运营利润率和工厂效率低下的挑战。回收低品位废热通常在技术上是不切实际的，而且成本过高。拟议的技术旨在抵消运营成本，提高工厂的整体效率。热能收集系统的目标用户是热电联产（CHP）装置的所有者/运营商、金属制造商、化学加工者、工业锅炉和其他目前无法回收其设施产生的大量低品位废热的工业设施。这项技术可能会降低这些应用的运营成本，降低能源需求，并提高可持续性。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将推进多孔形状记忆合金（SMA）材料作为执行器的转化。这项创新将是一种由新型多孔SMA材料组成的SMA致动器，以紧凑的旋转形式运行。与固态SMA致动器相比，多孔材料的小特征尺寸将允许快速传热和相变。这种新型致动器有望从相同质量的SMA材料中回收更多的功率。拟议的第一阶段概念验证工作将产生SMA整体行为及其在系统中的耦合行为的验证模型，包括传热、热机械行为和局部应力。除了改进的模型外，建议的工作将集中在多孔SMA材料的翻译可靠性上。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will address challenges with enduring low operating margins and plant inefficiencies across many application areas. Recovering low-grade waste heat is often a technically impractical and cost-prohibitive process. The proposed technology is designed to offset operating costs and increase overall plant efficiency. Target users for the thermal energy-harvesting system are owners/operators of combined heat and power (CHP) installations, metal manufacturers, chemical processors, industrial boilers, and other industrial facilities currently unable to recover the substantial amounts of low-grade waste heat that their facilities generate. The technology would potentially offer these applications reduced operating costs, reduced energy demands, and improved sustainability.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will advance the translation of porous Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) materials as actuators. The innovation will be an SMA actuator comprised of a novel, porous SMA material operating in a compact rotary form. The porous material's small feature size will allow for fast heat transfer and phase transformation, compared to solid SMA actuators. This novel actuator is expected to result in the recovery of substantially more power from the same mass of SMA material. The proposed Phase I proof-of-concept work will produce validated models of the overall SMA behavior and its coupled behavior in a system, including heat transfer, thermo-mechanical behavior, and localized stresses. In addition to the improved models, the proposed work will focus on reliability for translation of porous SMA materials.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.