Improving the accuracy of the topology optimization of turbulent flows

Silicon based power semiconductors have long been used as the standard in ‘semiconductor technology in power conversion applications’. Recent developments replaces the Silicon with Silicon Carbide as it results in superior performance of the power conversion applications. However, due to the increased performance, challenges...

Utilizing topology optimization to create cleanable structures

Topology optimization is a valuable tool for the optimization of all kinds of structures. It can create highly efficient but complex designs. This complexity can make these structures challenging to clean. However, cleanability is often a requirement in, for example, the medical or food industries. Currently, no method exists to reduce the...

An Interface-enriched Topology Optimization for Mitigating the Effect of Surface Flaws in 3D Brittle Structures

In this 3D fracture-based topology optimization framework, the author extended the 2D framework on tailoring fracture resistance for brittle materials (Zhang et al., 2022) to 3D. In the optimization, the topology is described by radial basis functions interpolated level set function, and the problem is solved by the Interface-enriched...

Hybrid vibration control with concurrent active piezoelectric and passive viscoelastic damping

The use of passive viscoelastic damping and active piezoelectric damping in a hybrid side-by-side configuration is explored in this paper. The goal is to combine the strengths of both individual methods to achieve better damping performance when targeting a single eigenmode or multiple resonances. It is found that a hybrid configuration where a...

Material property characterisation of tissue engineered fibrous cap structures: An inverse Finite Element study

Introduction: Atherosclerosis is characterised by the buildup of plaque within the arterial wall and it is often the underlying cause effect of deaths related to cardiovascular diseases. Thin cap fibroatheromas are plaques with a high risk of causing clinical events due to rupture and espousal of thrombogenic components to the bloodstream. The...

Design of a constant moment crease for use in neutrally stable origami

The goal of this thesis is to look into the possibilities of making origami neutrally stable. This is wanted because the inherent stiffness of origami mechanisms introduces unwanted artifacts such as a higher actuation force, and the mechanism not following the theoretical kinematics. By making an origami mechanism neutrally stable the inherent...

Mitigating weaknesses of density-based thermo-fluid topology optimization: Using meta-optimization of modeling parameters

Power electronic systems are reaching higher efficiencies as their technology advances, which often results in components of smaller size with higher power densities. Cooling these components becomes increasingly challenging as high power densities require cooling with large heat fluxes. Topology optimization (TO) of thermo-fluids can be used to...