Design of Actively-cooled Microvascular Composites

Nature-inspired microvascular networks have profound potential to offer a wide range of multi-functionality to host materials by enabling internal fluid/mass transport. Fiber-reinforced polymer composites exhibit superior structural performance (e.g., high specific strength/stiffness) whereby internal vasculature provides additional functionality including self-healing, thermal regulation, electromagnetic modulation, etc. We focus on the thermal management capability of microvascular fiber-composites which has a broad range of applications including electric vehicle battery packaging, space re-entry and hypersonic aircraft, and heat exchangers for microelectronics.
We are interested in developing a comprehensive design framework for microvascular composites to improve their thermal performance. This design framework includes Topology Optimization (TO), Hybrid Topology Optimization (HyTopS), Shape Optimization (SO), and Size Optimization. 

 

Related Publications

    • Pejman, R., Sigmund, O., and Najafi, A.R., “Topology optimization of microvascular composites for active-cooling applications using a geometrical reduced-order model,” Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 1-21, 2021.
    • Pejman, R., Keshavarzzadeh, V., and Najafi, A.R., “Hybrid topology/shape optimization under uncertainty for actively-cooled nature-inspired microvascular composites,” Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 375, 113624, 2021.
    • Devi U., Pejman R., Phillips Z., Zhang P., Soghrati S., Nakshatrala K., Najafi A.R., Schab K., Patrick J.F.,“A microvascular-based multifunctional and recongurable metamaterial”, Advanced Materials Tech-nologies, Accepted, 2021.
    • Pejman R., Maghami, E., Najafi A.R., “How to design a blockage-tolerant cooling network?” Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 181, 115916, 2020.
    • Pejman R., Najafi A.R., “Network redundancy: a key design factor for cooling networks”, In-ternational Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in En-gineering Conference, 84003, V11AT11A050, 2020.
    • Pejman R., Aboubakr, S.H., Martin, W.H., Devi, U., Tan M.H.Y., Patrik, J.F., Najafi A.R., “Gradient-based hybrid topology/shape optimization of bioinspired microvascular composites” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, vol. 144, 118606, 2019.