Predicting and analyzing interaction of the thermal cloaking performance through response surface method

[Display omitted] •Entropy analysis is introduced to describe the thermal cloaking process.•Response entropy is proposed to illustrate the cloaking performance.•The regression model between cloaking performance and design parameters is obtained through response surface method.•The interaction influence of cloaking scheme parameters on cloaking performance is verified. Thermal cloaks have been widely studied and experimented with. However, discussions on cloaking performance based on different design parameters effects are lacking. In this paper, we focus on predicting the cloaking performances of 2D thermal cloak schemes with different design parameters such as layer number, thickness, temperature difference, and relative thermal conductivity. The concept of response entropy, which is based on entropy generation analysis and is used to characterize the cloaking performance, is proposed. A regression model is established to predict the response entropy of the variational design parameters using response surface method (RSM). Five confirmation tests are conducted to verify the accuracy of the prediction. The relationship between the response entropy and the interaction effects of the design parameters are described with the help of 3D response surfaces using analysis of variance (ANOVA). In conclusion, we propose that a core-shell cloaking scheme with modest parametric values of 1–18 layers, a thickness of 1–5mm, a small relative thermal conductivity, and large temperature difference can provide a better cloaking performance. This paper presents a theoretical prediction of the cloaking performance and provides suggestions on fabricating better thermal cloaks under different parameters.