A groundbreaking discovery has been made by a team of researchers led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, challenging the 200-year-old Fourier’s Law that governs heat diffusion in solid materials. The research, led by Steve Granick, Robert K. Barrett Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering at UMass Amherst, questions the traditional understanding of how heat is transmitted through materials.
For centuries, scientists have believed that heat travels through solids via diffusion. However, the team’s hypothesis suggests that translucent polymers and inorganic glasses may allow energy to radiate through the materials as well, potentially creating an exception to Fourier’s Law.
To test this hypothesis, the researchers conducted experiments in a vacuum chamber to eliminate the air responsible for convective heat distribution. Using a laser, they created a pulse of heat in one sample and heated one side while keeping the other side cold in another sample.
2024-03-04 18:00:05
Source from phys.org