title: Multi-layer thermoelectric-temperature-mapping microbial incubator designed for geo-biochemistry applications.
abstract: We demonstrate a novel, vertical temperature-mapping incubator utilizing eight layers of thermoelectric (TE) modules mounted around a test tube. The temperature at each layer of the TE module is individually controlled to simulate the vertical temperature profile of geo-temperature variations with depth. Owing to the constraint of non-intrusion to the filled geo-samples, the temperature on the tube wall is adopted for measurement feedback. The design considerations for the incubator include spatial arrangement of the energy transfer mechanism, heating capacity of the TE modules, minimum required sample amount for follow-up instrumental or chemical analysis, and the constraint of non-intrusion to the geo-samples during incubation. The performance of the incubator is experimentally evaluated with two tube conditions and under four preset temperature profiles. Test tubes are either empty or filled with quartz sand, which has comparable thermal properties to the materials in the geo-environment. The applied temperature profiles include uniform, constant temperature gradient, monotonic-increasing parabolic, and parabolic. The temperature on the tube wall can be controlled between 20 °C and 90 °C with an averaged root mean squared error of 1 °C.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jin-Gen
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Man-Chi
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ming-Fei
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Wei-Shun
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Jian-Zhang
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: I-Chun
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Pei-Chun
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D004560:Electricity; D055593:Geological Phenomena; D008829:Microbiology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D055616:Microtechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013696:Temperature