Variational approach to extracting the phonon mean free path distribution from the spectral Boltzmann transport equation
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PhysRevB.93.155201.pdf
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Author(s) • • • • •
Chiloyan, Vazrik
Zeng, Lingping
Chen, Gang
Huberman, Samuel C.
Maznev, Alexei
Nelson, Keith Adam
Date Issued
April 2016
Journal
Physical Review B
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Chiloyan, Vazrik, Lingping Zeng, Samuel Huberman, Alexei A. Maznev, Keith A. Nelson, and Gang Chen. “Variational Approach to Extracting the Phonon Mean Free Path Distribution from the Spectral Boltzmann Transport Equation.” Physical Review B 93, no. 15 (April 6, 2016). © 2016 American Physical Society
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Final published version
Abstract
The phonon Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) is a powerful tool for studying nondiffusive thermal transport. Here, we develop a new universal variational approach to solving the BTE that enables extraction of phonon mean free path (MFP) distributions from experiments exploring nondiffusive transport. By utilizing the known Fourier heat conduction solution as a trial function, we present a direct approach to calculating the effective thermal conductivity from the BTE. We demonstrate this technique on the transient thermal grating experiment, which is a useful tool for studying nondiffusive thermal transport and probing the MFP distribution of materials. We obtain a closed form expression for a suppression function that is materials dependent, successfully addressing the nonuniversality of the suppression function used in the past, while providing a general approach to studying thermal properties in the nondiffusive regime.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.155201