Optimum shape design for three-layer interfacial surfaces

The optimum shape design for three-layer interfacial surfaces was investigated. The B-spline surface generation technique is considered to generate the geometry of interfacial surfaces, because the technique can generalize a smooth surface that satisfies the system requirements and makes a proper shape for an interfacial surface. The boundary control points of the interfacial surfaces are assumed to be fixed, and 16 control points are used to generate each shape of the interfacial surface. The optimal configurations of the interfacial surfaces are to be designed by varying the desired system heat fluxes, assuming that the boundary points of interfacial surfaces are always fixed at z=0.5 and 1.0 m, respectively, and using 16 control points to describe each interfacial surface. The results showed that, by varying the shapes of interfacial surfaces, the system heat flux can indeed be increased and, for different combinations of thermal conductivities and the same volume constraint, the increases in the total system heat fluxes are between 10.1 and 24.5%.