Directional heat transport through thermal reflection meta-device

Abstract

Directional heat transfer may be hard to realize due to the fact that heat transfer is diffusive. In this paper, we try to take one step forward based on the transformation thermodynamics. A special structure and meta-device is proposed to “reflect” the heat flow directionally–just like the mirror to the light beam, in which the heat flow just one-time changes the direction rather than gradually changing the directions in isotropic materials. The benefits of such thermal reflection meta-device are discussed by comparing the corresponding thermal resistance with the same structures of isotropic materials. The proposed meta-device is verified to possess the low thermal resistance and high heat transfer ability with least energy loss, and can be made by nature-existing isotropic materials with specific structures.