Vascular structures for volumetric cooling and mechanical strength
Abstract
When solid material is removed in order to create flow channels in a load carrying
structure, the strength of the structure decreases. On the other hand, a structure
with channels is lighter and easier to transport as part of a vehicle. Here, we show
that this trade off can be used for benefit, to design a vascular mechanical structure.
When the total amount of solid is fixed and the sizes, shapes, and positions of the
channels can vary, it is possible to morph the flow architecture such that it endows
the mechanical structure with maximum strength. The result is a multifunctional structure
that offers not only mechanical strength but also new capabilities necessary for volumetric
functionalities such as self-healing and self-cooling. We illustrate the generation
of such designs for strength and fluid flow for several classes of vasculatures: parallel
channels, trees with one, two, and three bifurcation levels. The flow regime in every
channel is laminar and fully developed. In each case, we found that it is possible
to select not only the channel dimensions but also their positions such that the entire
structure offers more strength and less flow resistance when the total volume (or
weight) and the total channel volume are fixed. We show that the minimized peak stress
is smaller when the channel volume (φ) is smaller and the vasculature is more complex,
i.e., with more levels of bifurcation. Diminishing returns are reached in both directions,
decreasing φ and increasing complexity. For example, when φ=0.02 the minimized peak
stress of a design with one bifurcation level is only 0.2% greater than the peak stress
in the optimized vascular design with two levels of bifurcation. © 2010 American Institute
of Physics.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/3378Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1063/1.3294697Publication Info
Wang, KM; Lorente, S; & Bejan, A (2010). Vascular structures for volumetric cooling and mechanical strength. Journal of Applied Physics, 107(4). pp. 44901. 10.1063/1.3294697. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/3378.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Adrian Bejan
J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Professor Bejan was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal 2018 and the Humboldt Research
Award 2019. His research covers engineering science and applied physics: thermodynamics,
heat transfer, convection, design, and evolution in nature. He is ranked among the
top 0.01% of the most cited and impactful world scientists (and top 10 in Engineering
world wide) in the 2019 citations impact database created by Stanford University’s
John Ioannidis, in <a href="https://urldefen

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