Applicability and challenges of automated design approaches for thermo-fluid components

This thesis addresses the capabilities and challenges of automated design approaches, specifically for ap-plication in which a combination of heat transfer and flow is needed. The objective is to use automateddesign approaches from literature and to identify the bottlenecks.For this purpose, an industrial thermal-fluid airshower is designed,...

Best Practices for Adjoint-based Shape Optimization of Turbomachinery Stages

In the pursuit of a new ultra-efficient generation of turbomachines, novel and more sophisticated flow simulation and optimization methods have to be adopted. With the development of harmonic balance (HB) methods and adjoint optimization, questions arise on the concrete benefits of using one method over another. This research investigates the...

Shape and Topology Optimized TSHD Midsection

The common practice of designing a ship is to look for ships with similar specifications and alter it to the client's needs. This often leads to structurally redundant and therefore overdimensioned ship designs. Hence, much improvement could be expected from ship structures where optimization algorithms help advise in the design process. In this...

Shape optimisation of a second skin: What can be achieved - in terms of structural and building physics performance - when an existing skin of a building is removed and replaced by a new facade

To reach the European Union climate targets of 2020 the rate of refurbishment must increase. The problem is that there are many barriers to refurbishment, which causes a low rate and low quality. The objective is to overcome these barriers and stimulate facade refurbishment. This thesis looks at the improvement, that can be made when replacing...

The design of a compliant shape-preserving ring

Compliant shape-preserving mechanisms fullfil a tiny niche within the established research field of compliant mechanisms. To date no report exists on a compliant shape-preserving ring, that is while these mechanisms can give rise to a multitude of practical applications. They can essentially act as novel sealing mechanisms, compliant grippers or...

Feasibility study of a wood-concrete hybrid super tall building and optimization of its wind-induced behaviour: A case study on a skyscraper in the city-centre of Rotterdam

The demand for sustainable high-rise buildings is growing. Such sustainable high-rise could be realized by the use of mass timber for the structural design instead of more conventional building materials such as steel and concrete. Timber is a renewable resource which can be CO₂ neutral if reforestation takes place to close its carbon...

Design optimization of splitter blades for rocket engine turbopump

Turbopumps are used in large-scale liquid rockets to inject the cryogenic propellants into the combustor. The turbopumps operate at high rotational speed, which in turn leads to cavitation at the inlet of the impeller. Cavitation can cause performance issues, instabilities and mechanical damage of the blades.<br/>This thesis presents and...

Post-Processing of Topology Optimized Results: A method for retrieving smooth and crisp geometries

Structural design optimization is the process of obtaining an optimized structure while satisfying a set of criteria. The process can be divided into three stages: topology optimization (stage one), geometry extraction (stage two) and shape optimization (stage three). The last two stages are regarded to be the post-processor of topology...

Monolithic Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvesting: for low frequency and wide bandwidth operation

Energy harvesting is the process by which energy is derived from environmental vibrations in order to power local electronic systems . The technology gets rid of the need for electrical wires or batteries in a wide range of sensor and communication networks. This work tackles the three most challenging aspects in the field of vibration energy...

Structural Shape Optimization: Using Isogeometric Analysis