Multifunctional design of two-dimensional cellular materials with tailored mesostructure

Two-dimensional cellular materials (prismatic honeycombs) provide a range of properties that make them suitable for multifunctional applications involving heat dissipation and structural performance. In this paper we present two-scale homogenization-based finite element scheme for convective heat transfer and structural characterization of 2-D cellular metals with uniform and graded cell sizes of various topologies as well as with mixed cell-topologies. For convective heat transfer analysis, the cells are modeled implicitly as temperature-dependent sinks modeling the out-of-plane fluid convection through the cells; the sink strength is determined via a micromechanics problem of heat transfer in a cell. For structural analysis, the cellular material is represented as a micropolar continuum with linear elastic constitutive equations obtained via micromechanics solution of a representative unit cell. The analyses are then used in conjunction with an optimization algorithm to design cellular materials with functionally tailored mesostructures. The analysis and design framework enables tailoring cellular materials with graded cell structures of a given topology as well as with cell structures that combine multiple topologies.