How heat harms systems The physics here sits inside thermodynamics, the study of how energy moves and changes form. <\/p>\n When a system runs, a slice of useful energy turns into heat, and that heat can reorganize a material\u2019s microstructure in ways that add up to damage over time.<\/p>\n This work comes from Dr. Jude A. Osara<\/a>, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Engineering Technology at the University of Twente<\/a>. <\/p>\n His project asks a simple question with big consequences, how much of what fails in real systems comes from temperature<\/a> rise itself.<\/p>\n Heat also raises entropy, a measure of internal disorder, and entropy links to both performance and degradation. <\/p>\n The key is to separate what heat does from what the main job of the system is doing, whether that is moving a bike crank, storing charge, or sliding a bearing.<\/p>\n Measuring heat damage<\/p>\n Osara introduces microstructurothermal (MST<\/a>) entropy, a term that captures the specific contribution of temperature rise to change inside a system. <\/p>\n In tests<\/a> with a lithium-ion cell, the framework found that temperature rise accounted for about 37 percent of total degradation during discharge.<\/p>\n That number matters because it is easy to ignore heat when the main signal feels dominant. <\/p>\n A battery\u2019s current looks big compared with its heat<\/a>, and an athlete\u2019s power meter looks louder than their skin temperature, yet the thermal side still bites into durability.<\/p>\n The framework also distinguishes transformation, how performance is changing right now, from degradation, the lasting loss of health. <\/p>\n Keeping those threads apart makes it easier to see when cooling restores capacity and when it only slows the slide.<\/p>\n Heat in bodies and batteries<\/p>\n \u201cMy calculations show that heat is not just a by-product, but an active mechanism that impairs performance and accelerates degradation,\u201d said Dr. Osara. <\/p>\n In the same analysis, elite cyclists training at 32\u00b0C (89.6\u00b0F) showed a 27 percent higher cardiovascular load than at 23\u00b0C (73.4\u00b0F).<\/p>\n Exercise studies back up that picture with measured outcomes. A classic study<\/a> of 11 elite road cyclists recorded roughly a 6.5 percent drop in power output during a 30 minute time trial at 32\u00b0C compared with 23\u00b0C.<\/p>\n The battery world tells a similar story, and it is not just the average temperature<\/a> that matters. <\/p>\n Even small thermal gradients<\/a> speed damage, with one study showing that a 3\u00b0C (37.4\u00b0F) difference inside a single cell drove a 300 percent increase in degradation.<\/p>\n Heat in mechanical systems<\/p>\n In mechanical systems like journal bearings<\/a>, friction creates both wear and heat. When cooling is poor, that heat raises local temperatures, changes material properties, and speeds the breakdown of the surfaces in contact.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tests have shown that once the temperature rise passes certain thresholds, the damage rate grows far more quickly than expected from friction alone.<\/p>\n Greases and lubricants face similar problems. Their microstructures soften or chemically change when exposed to elevated temperatures. <\/p>\n Even when the load or pressure is constant, heat shifts the balance toward earlier failure, shortening service life.\u00a0<\/p>\n By applying the MST framework, these small but steady losses can be tracked and managed with more precision.<\/p>\n Keeping systems cool<\/p>\n The stakes are growing, fast. Globally, electricity use for cooling is projected to more than double by 2050, according to a UN report<\/a>.<\/p>\n For engineers, the takeaway is straightforward. Keep the MST term small by limiting heat generation, improving heat spread, and holding temperature in the device\u2019s sweet spot.<\/p>\n For clinicians and athletes, the same logic applies. Cooler skin and steadier core temperature reduce cardiovascular strain, support output, and lower risk.<\/p>\n For operators and maintainers, the numbers help prioritize actions. If a third of a battery\u2019s degradation rides on temperature rise, smarter tribology choices, better airflow, or active cooling are not add-ons, they are life-extenders.<\/p>\n For students, the framework shows how to make a clean energy balance that includes both the useful work and the thermal side. <\/p>\n It also shows why reversible, near-isothermal steps can act like \u201chealing\u201d in rechargeable cells, because they add energy while holding dissipation near zero.<\/p>\n The study is published in Applied Mechanics<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heat does more than make us uncomfortable. It quietly chips away at human performance and shortens the life…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[49,48,314,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-155501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-physics","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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