Thermal cloaking of complex objects with the neutral inclusion and the coordinate transformation methods

Abstract

We explore the cloaking of a complex shape by either the neutral inclusion or the transformation thermodynamics (TT) methods. Thin cloaks are built and the heat cloaking efficiency is investigated for both the steady-state and the transient regimes. We show that the neutral inclusion cloak is more efficient in both regimes, though it has the drawback that the thermal conductivity of the cloaked shape must be known. In practice, the neutral inclusion method is more flexible and easier to implement than the coordinate transformation method, especially for complex shapes.