Multifunctional Composites: Optimizing Microstructures for Simultaneous Transport of Heat and Electricity
Top Cited Papers
- 9 December 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 89 (26), 266601
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.89.266601
Abstract
Composite materials are ideally suited to achieve multifunctionality since the best features of different materials can be combined to form a new material that has a broad spectrum of desired properties. Nature’s ultimate multifunctional composites are biological materials. There are presently no simple examples that rigorously demonstrate the effect of competing property demands on composite microstructures. To illustrate the fascinating types of microstructures that can arise in multifunctional optimization, we maximize the simultaneous transport of heat and electricity in three-dimensional, two-phase composites using rigorous optimization techniques. Interestingly, we discover that the optimal three-dimensional structures are bicontinuous triply periodic minimal surfaces.This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
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