A Passive Thermal Switch with Kirigami-Inspired Mesostructures

The objective of this work is to design a passive thermal switch with Kirigami-inspired architected materials composed of bilayer hinges and to analyze thermomechanical and thermal performance at the ON/OFF states based on a composition of materials and geometry of metamaterials. Analytical models are constructed to determine the thermal deformation and heat transport of the metamaterial, followed by finite element-based simulations. A two-step design approach - i) selection of multi-materials and ii) geometric modification of mesostructures provides a robust method for the design of a passive thermal switch with Kirigami-inspired metamaterials. The mesostructures designed have potential as a passive thermal switch enabling to engineer a large thermal deformation, a small thermal resistance, and a sizable thermal switch ratio. With a systematic approach, this work demonstrates that Kirigami structures with multi-materials can be potentially used for a tool of thermal transport.