Title: A simple Cellular Automaton algorithm to optimise heat transfer in complex configurations

Authors: Raphael Boichot, Lingai Luo

Addresses: Science et Ingenierie des Matériaux et Procedes (SIMaP), Grenoble INP-Phelma, 1130 rue de la Piscine, 38042 Saint Martin d'Heres, France. ' Laboratoire Optimisation de la Conception et Ingenierie de l'Environnement (LOCIE), CNRS FRE 3220 – Universite de Savoie, Polytech'Savoie, Campus Scientifique, Savoie Technolac, 73376, Le Bourget-Du-Lac cedex, France

Abstract: The aim of this study is to propose a method for constructing a conductive paths topology in a 2D area-to-point and points-to-points problem. We focus here on heat conduction, with the goal of decreasing the temperature differences across a domain. We propose a method using a Cellular Automaton (CA) to reshape an initial topology by a thermal gradients attraction-repulsion mechanism. The potentiality of the generated conductive trees is proved through the temperature reductions obtained. We also propose a second law analysis of the problem. This algorithm leads to heat drains that tend to equally sustain irreversibility across the domain.

Keywords: cellular automaton; topology optimisation; heat conduction; tree networks; constructal theory; entropy maps; heat transfer; conductive paths; cooling; temperature differences; temperature reductions; heat drains; irreversibility.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEX.2010.029614

International Journal of Exergy, 2010 Vol.7 No.1, pp.51 - 64

Published online: 30 Nov 2009 *

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