Thermoelectric Cooling

In this chapter, design and analysis study of thermoelectric cooling systems are described. Thermoelectric (TE) cooling technology has many advantages over the conventional vapor-compression cooling systems. These include: they are more compacted devices with less maintenance necessities, have lower levels of vibration and noise, and have a more precise control over the temperature. These advantages have encouraged the development of new applications in the market. It is likely to use TE modules for cooling the indoor air and hence compete with conventional air-conditioning systems. These systems can include both cooling and heating of the conditioned space. In order to improve the performance of the TE cooling systems, the hot side of the TE should be directly connected to efficient heat exchangers for dissipation of the excessive heat. Finally, TE cooling systems can be supplied directly by photovoltaic to produce the required power to run these cooling systems

Morpho butterfly-inspired optical diffraction, diffusion, and bio-chemical sensing

Morpho-butterfly is well-known for the blue colouration in its tiny wing scales and finds applications in colour filters, anti-reflecting coatings and optical devices. Herein, the structural optical properties of the Morpho peleides-butterfly wing scales were examined through light reflection, diffraction and optical diffusion. The light diffraction property from wing scales was investigated through experiments and computation modelling. Broadband reflection variation was observed from different parts of the dorsal wings at broadband light illumination due to tiny structural variations, as verified by electronic microscopic images. The periodic nanostructures showed well-defined first-order diffraction through monochromatic (red, green and blue) and broadband light at normal illumination. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) embedded with Morpho peleides-butterfly wing scales acts as an optical diffuser to produce soft light. Light diffraction and diffusion properties were measured by angle-resolve experiments, followed by computational modelling. The maximum optical diffusion property at ∼185° from the wing scales was observed using broadband light at normal illumination. Finally, Morpho peleides-butterfly based submicron nanostructures were utilized to demonstrate bio-inspired chemical sensing

Multimode optical fiber strain monitoring for smart infrastructures

The in-service monitoring of civil infrastructures is an important task required to achieve their smart operation. This task requires the installation of sensors to continuously check and control the structures’ status in order to fulfil the demanded operating conditions and avoid the occurrence of malfunctions. This work presents an investigation of the use of multimode optical fiber sensors in detecting strain and vibration of infrastructures. The multimode fiber sensor is composed of a single mode – multimode – single mode concatenated fiber structure. To explore its practical application for strain monitoring, the sensor is used to measure the strain on a pressurized pipe and its performance compared with the well-developed fiber Bragg grating sensor. The detuning of spectral features of the multimode sensor transmission with increasing pipe pressure is found to have a good linearity (R2 ∼ 0.95) and is more sensitive to strain compared to that of the fiber Bragg grating

Morpho butterfly-inspired optical diffraction, diffusion, and bio-chemical sensing

Morpho-butterfly is well-known for the blue colouration in its tiny wing scales and finds applications in colour filters, anti-reflecting coatings and optical devices. Herein, the structural optical properties of the Morpho peleides-butterfly wing scales were examined through light reflection, diffraction and optical diffusion. The light diffraction property from wing scales was investigated through experiments and computation modelling. Broadband reflection variation was observed from different parts of the dorsal wings at broadband light illumination due to tiny structural variations, as verified by electronic microscopic images. The periodic nanostructures showed well-defined first-order diffraction through monochromatic (red, green and blue) and broadband light at normal illumination. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) embedded with Morpho peleides-butterfly wing scales acts as an optical diffuser to produce soft light. Light diffraction and diffusion properties were measured by angle-resolve experiments, followed by computational modelling. The maximum optical diffusion property at ∼185° from the wing scales was observed using broadband light at normal illumination. Finally, Morpho peleides-butterfly based submicron nanostructures were utilized to demonstrate bio-inspired chemical sensing.H. B. thanks the Welcome Trust for research funding