Hydrodynamic Phonon Transport Perpendicular to Diffuse-Gray Boundaries

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the application of an ideal phonon-hydrodynamic material as the heat transfer medium between two non-hydrodynamic contacts with a finite temperature difference. We use the integral-equation approach to solve a modified phonon Boltzmann transport equation with the displaced Bose-Einstein distribution as the equilibrium distribution between two boundaries perpendicular to the heat transfer direction. When the distance between the boundaries is smaller than the phonon normal scattering mean free path, our solution converges to the ballistic limit as expected. In the other limit, we find that, although the local thermal conductivity in the bulk of the hydrodynamic material approaches infinity, the thermal boundary resistance at the hydrodynamic/non-hydrodynamic interfaces becomes dominant. Our study provides insights to both the steady-state thermal characterization of phonon-hydrodynamic materials and the practical application of phonon-hydrodynamic materials for thermal management.