Topology design of two-fluid heat exchange

This paper revisits the origin of topology optimisation for fluid flow problems, namely the Poiseuille-based frictional resistance term used to parametrise regions of solid and fluid. The traditional model only works for true topology optimisation, where it is used to approximate solid regions as areas with very small channel height and, thus, very high frictional resistance. It will be shown that if the channel height is allowed to vary continuously and/or the minimum channe...

Topological optimization finds a material density distribution minimizing a functional of the solution of a partial differential equation (PDE), subject to a set of constraints (typically, a bound on the volume or mass of the material). Using a finite elements discretization (FEM) of the PDE and functional we obtain an integer programming problem. Due to approximation error of FEM discretization, optimization problem becomes mesh-depended and possess false, physically inade...

In this paper, we present a framework for multiscale topology optimization of fluid-flow devices. The objective is to minimize dissipated power, subject to a desired contact-area. The proposed strategy is to design optimal microstructures in individual finite element cells, while simultaneously optimizing the overall fluid flow. In particular, parameterized super-shape microstructures are chosen here to represent microstructures since they exhibit a wide range of permeability...

The objective of this study is to highlight the effect of porosity variation in a topology optimization process in the field of fluid dynamics. Usually a penalization term added to momentum equation provides to get material distribution. Every time material is added inside the computational domain, there is creation of new fluid-solid interfaces and apparition of gradient of porosity. However, at present, porosity variation is not taken account in topology optimization and th...

We present an improved method for topology optimization with both adaptive mesh refinement and derefinement. Since the total volume fraction in topology optimization is usually modest, after a few initial iterations the domain of computation is largely void. Hence, it is inefficient to have many small elements, in such regions, that contribute significantly to the overall computational cost but contribute little to the accuracy of computation and design. At the same time, we ...

The published literature on topology optimization has exploded over the last two decades to include methods that use shape and topological derivatives or evolutionary algorithms formulated on various geometric representations and parametrizations. One of the key challenges of all these methods is the massive computational cost associated with 3D topology optimization problems. We introduce a transfer learning method based on a convolutional neural network that (1) can handle ...

Topology optimization (TO) provides a principled mathematical approach for optimizing the performance of a structure by designing its material spatial distribution in a pre-defined domain and subject to a set of constraints. The majority of existing TO approaches leverage numerical solvers for design evaluations during the optimization and hence have a nested nature and rely on discretizing the design variables. Contrary to these approaches, herein we develop a new class of T...

Topology design optimization offers tremendous opportunity in design and manufacturing freedoms by designing and producing a part from the ground-up without a meaningful initial design as required by conventional shape design optimization approaches. Ideally, with adequate problem statements, to formulate and solve the topology design problem using a standard topology optimization process, such as SIMP (Simplified Isotropic Material with Penalization) is possible. In reality,...

Data-driven methods have gained increasing attention in computational mechanics and design. This study investigates a two-scale data-driven design for thermal metamaterials with various functionalities. To address the complexity of multiscale design, the design variables are chosen as the components of the homogenized thermal conductivity matrix originating from the lower scale unit cells. Multiple macroscopic functionalities including thermal cloak, thermal concentrator, the...

In topology optimization of fluid-dependent problems, there is a need to interpolate within the design domain between fluid and solid in a continuous fashion. In density-based methods, the concept of inverse permeability in the form of a volumetric force is utilized to enforce zero fluid velocity in non-fluid regions. This volumetric force consists of a scalar term multiplied by the fluid velocity. This scalar term takes a value between two limits as determined by a convex in...