Multi-physics design of microvascular materials for active cooling applications (Q550948)

Microvascular polymeric materials are created by extruding a fugitive ink over a polymeric substrate with tip diameters ranging from a few microns to hundreds of microns. The microvascular materials can be used for active cooling applications. The optimization of the topology of the microvascular network for such applications encompasses a set of objectives that involve several physical phenomena. The energy that drives the flow through the network needs to be minimized in an optimal design. This paper summarizes the authors' extension of the results presented in [\textit{A. M. Aragón, J. K. Wayer, P. H. Geubelle, D. E. Goldberg} and \textit{S. R. White}, Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 197, No. 49--50, 4399--4410 (2008; Zbl 1194.74196)] to include the thermal response of the embedded network so that optimized 2D structures can be obtained in the context of active cooling applications. The temperature field can be determined by solving the corresponding partial differential equations in both fluid and solid domains using a multi-objective genetic algorithm. To reduce the computational cost of the conjugate problem some simplifying assumptions that take advantage of the laminar regime of the flow and the high aspect ratio of the microchannels are adopted by the authors.