Two exact schemes to realize thermal chameleonlike metashells

Abstract

Intelligence has become one of the developing trends of thermal metamaterials in order to meet different practical requirements. By considering the temperature-dependent and specially designed thermal conductivities, chameleonlike behaviors have been revealed to realize adaptive responses to nearby objects. However, the existing schemes are approximately valid only for a small working range of nearby thermal conductivities. This fact limits practical applications. To solve this problem, here we propose two exact schemes to realize thermal chameleonlike behaviors, say, monolayer schemes and bilayer schemes. By carefully designing the thermal conductivities of the metashells, we find that the effective thermal conductivities can exactly change with those of nearby objects. Theoretical derivations are validated by finite-element simulations. We further extend the monolayer schemes to three dimensions. The proposed schemes can work as a type of multifunction materials to meet different requirements of thermal conductivities. This work provides intelligence to thermal conductivities, which may inspire further development of intelligent thermal metamaterials. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2020.