Variable thermal insulation assembly

A variable thermal insulation assembly comprising:

• a frame that circumscribes a thermal actuation region having a gas;
• one or more thermal cell array units positioned within the thermal actuation region, each thermal cell array unit comprising:
• a first surface sheet and a second surface sheet, wherein the first and second surface sheets are similarly shaped and define a thermal cell array region therebetween;
• a thermal cell array positioned within each thermal cell array region and coupled to the first and second surface sheets such that the thermal cell array substantially fills the thermal cell array region;
• wherein each thermal cell array comprises a plurality of sheets and at least two of the sheets in each thermal cell array are flexible sheets;
• wherein adjacent pairs of said flexible sheets are bonded together along at least one pair of bonding regions that extend substantially parallel to each other such that each pair of flexible sheets defines at least one substantially longitudinally symmetrical cavity between each pair of bonding regions, each longitudinally symmetrical cavity being one of a plurality of thermal cells;
• wherein a distance between each pair of bonding regions is sufficiently small that the total heat loss arising from convective gas flow within the thermal cells is less than total heat loss arising from thermal conduction of the gas present within the thermal actuation region;
• wherein the distance between each pair of bonding regions is sufficiently large, and the thermal conductivity of the sheets is sufficiently low, such that heat transfer due to thermal conduction within the sheets is less than the heat loss due to thermal conduction of the gas of the thermal actuation region;
• wherein each of the plurality of thermal cells is bonded to another thermal cell or a sheet in order to form a connected thermal cell array unit;
• a position controller coupled to at least one of the first and second surface sheets for applying a control force on at least one of the first and second surface sheets to expand the thermal cell array into an expanded state and compress the thermal cell array into a compressed state within the thermal actuation region to vary a volume of the thermal actuation region that is occupied by the thermal cell array units;
• wherein the plurality of sheets are sufficiently thin and formed of one or more materials that are sufficiently compliant such that, for each first and second sheet, when the thermal cell arrays are in the expanded state by the applied control force, a gap between each surface sheet and the adjacent frame surface or surface sheet, is made sufficiently small that the total heat loss that is attributable to gas flow through the gap is less than the total of the heat loss due to thermal conduction through the thermal cells.