
Phonon Transport
Click to watch Professor Henry give an overview talk about our research in thermal transport which involves thinking beyond the phonon gas model (PGM)

Amorphous Thermal Conductivity
We have developed a new formalism called the Green-Kubo Modal Analysis (GKMA) method that allows one to calculate the modal contributions to thermal conductivity for any material or object where the atoms vibrate around equilibrium sites. Here we are studying amorphous materials.

Thermal Interface Conductance
We recently developed a new method for calculating the modal contributions to thermal interface conductance, with full inclusion of anharmonicity, termed the interface conductance modal analysis (ICMA) method. Our results indicate that when two materials are joined, one must use a new set of modes to describe what happens at interfaces.

Alloy Thermal Conductivity
Using our recently developed GKMA method, we are examining the modal contributions to thermal conductivity in random alloys. Interestingly, the modes in random alloys with crystalline structure are the same as that of amorphous materials, namely propagons, diffusons and locons.

Polymer Thermal Conductivity
Using our recently developed GKMA method, we are exploring the underlying physics of phonon transport in polymers.

Sonification
We are converting the results of our molecular dynamics simulations into audible sounds to listen for patterns and derive new insights. Essentially, we listen to the vibrations of atoms. This process of representing data as an audible sound is termed sonification.