Near-field radiative heat transfer between clusters of dielectric nanoparticles

In this work, we explore the near-field radiative heat transfer between two clusters of silicon carbide (SiC) nanoparticles using the many-body radiative heat transfer theory. The effects of fractal dimension of clusters, many-body interaction between nanoparticles and relative orientation of clusters on the thermal conductance are studied. Meanwhile, the applicability of the equivalent volume spheres (EVS) approximation for near-field radiative heat transfer between clusters is examined. It is observed that the thermal conductance is larger for clusters with larger fractal dimension, which is more significant in the near-field. The thermal conductance of EVS resembles that of the clusters, but EVS overestimates the conductance of clusters, especially in the near-field. Compared to the case of two nanoparticles, the conductance of nanoparticle clusters decays much slower with increasing distance in the near-field, but shares similar dependence on the distance in the far-field. The thermal conductance of SiC nanoparticle clusters is inhibited by the many-body interaction when surface phonon polariton is supported but enhanced at frequencies close to the resonance frequency. The total thermal conductance is decreased due to many-body interaction among particles in the cluster. The relative orientation between the clusters is also an important factor in the near-field, especially for clusters with lower fractal dimension. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.