thermal measurement
and energy transport"
Highlight of the month
Previous highlights are archived.2 November 2009 Terry Musho (PhD student) is participating in Nanoday by submitting a student poster 23 October 2009
Lockheed Martin has recently awarded the TELab $120,000 to develop general-purpose atomic pseudopotentials using multi-objective genetic algorithms (MOGA). Preliminary research has shown that potentials developed using MOGA were accurate, computationally inexpensive, and were transferable to a number of crystal systems. Our goal is to use MOGA to obtain atomic pseudopotentials for a number of elements on the periodic table. The image shows the Pareto set resulting from the attempt to decrease computational time and increase accuracy of the pseudopotential simulataneously.
About TELab
The Thermal Engineering Lab is directed by Prof. Greg Walker of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. Our mission is to explore the physical effects of energy transport particularly in nanoscale structures to obtain a better understanding of the physical world that can lead to engineering discoveries in energy applications.
One focus is in microscale energy transport in semiconductor devices designed for energy conversion. This includes thermoelectric devices, solar cells, and fuel cells, for example. We also study fundamental artifacts of small scale transport such as thermal rectification, interfacial conductance and nanofluid convection.
A second focus area is in heat flux measurement using thermographic phosphors and ultrasonic approaches. Our techniques have been applied to gun barrels, aerospace testing in wind tunnels and combustion chambers.
Prospective students
We are always looking for quality students to join our group. Prospective students should contact Greg Walker for information about upcoming projects.