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posted by takyon on Wednesday March 13 2019, @07:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the squeeze-pop dept.

Phys.org:

It can be used to cool or heat the air in a room or to cool or heat liquids. And it looks like something that Q—the tech specialist and gadgeteer in the James Bond films—might have come up with. The prototype device, which has been developed by a research team led by Professors Stefan Seelecke and Andreas Schütze at Saarland University, is able to transfer heat using 'muscles' made from nickel-titanium. Nickel-titanium or nitinol, as it is often known, is a shape-memory material that releases heat to its surroundings when it is mechanically loaded in its superelastic state and absorbs heat from its surroundings when it is unloaded. This unusual property is the reason why nitinol is also referred to as a 'smart alloy' or as 'muscle wire." This effect has been exploited by the Saarbrücken researchers who have developed an environmentally friendly heating and cooling system that is two to three times more efficient than conventional heating and cooling devices.

The researchers say the device also works without the usual refrigerants that damage the environment.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @08:27PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @08:27PM (#813908)

    They don’t mention it but the process must escape the limits of the Carnot cycle which current refrigeration units approach
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot_cycle [wikipedia.org]

  • (Score: 2) by Megahard on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:14PM

    by Megahard (4782) on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:14PM (#813923)

    So maybe it's more like something that other Q [wikipedia.org] would come up with.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:31PM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:31PM (#813931) Journal

    Nope. The only difference is the any thermal machine using memory metals work with a solid medium instead of a fluid one.

    Besides, this story is news about "antique" technology - nitinol [wikipedia.org] has been used for building heat machines shortly after its discovery; head to the 'Other applications and prototypes' of the linked and see the mentions of 1970-ies tech. (sorry, on mobile, can't deep-link to the place)

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford