A level set-based topology optimization approach for thermally radiating structures

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The need for efficient thermally radiating structures is apparent in many aerospace system designs including satellites, launch vehicles, and hypersonic aircraft. This paper presents a novel level set-based topology optimization approach for designing thermally efficient radiating structures. In this paper, we derive a shape sensitivity of the thermal heat power radiated objective function using the adjoint method. This sensitivity is a necessary ingredient for our gradient-based algorithm. We apply an augmented Lagrangian method to solve an example 2D problem where the goal is to maximize heat power rejected subject to a material volume constraint. The radiating surface is kept fixed during the optimization to maintain a design-independent boundary condition, while the conducting region is optimized. Several solutions are illustrated with varying initial conditions. We also present a case study indicating that maximizing the thermal compliance functional is not sufficient for solving this class of problems.</jats:p>