Heat flow in electrocaloric multilayer capacitors


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Type
Article
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Authors
Faye, R 
Usui, T 
Torello, A 
Dkhil, B 
Moya, X 
Abstract

Multilayer capacitors (MLCs) represent promising electrocaloric (EC) cooling elements because they operate at low voltages, they possess large breakdown fields, they contain inner electrodes that facilitate heat transfer, and they exhibit a macroscopic volume of active EC material. However, almost ten years after they were first suggested as EC elements, the internal heat flow has not been well studied. In this paper, we use an infrared camera to investigate heat flow within representative MLCs of Pb(Mg,Nb)O3, and we achieve good agreement with the results of finite element modelling (FEM) by identifying for the inner electrodes an effective thermal conductivity that represents the limiting factor for heat flow. Increasing the inner electrode thickness by a factor of five would increase heat flow by a factor of 2.6. Our work therefore shows that FEM can play an important role in MLC design for EC applications.

Description
Keywords
Solid state cooling, Electrocalorics, Multi layer capacitors, Thermal conductivity, Heat flow
Journal Title
Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0925-8388
1873-4669
Volume Title
834
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Sponsorship
The Royal Society (uf120210)
Royal Society (URF\R\180035)
FNR (Luxembourg) and the Royal Society.