Design of composite materials with optimal stiffness and thermal conductivities

This paper presents the bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) method for the design of two-phase composite materials with optimal properties of stiffness and thermal conductivities. The composite material is modeled by microstructures in a periodical base cell (PBC). The inverse homogenization method is used to derive the properties of effective bulk modules and thermal conductivities. BESO procedures are presented to optimize the two individual properties and their various combinations. Two numerical examples are studied. The effectiveness of BESO has been demonstrated by good comparisons to the benchmark microstructures and the Hashin-Shtrikman bounds.