Bioinspired, Simulation‐Guided Design of Polyhedron Metamaterial for Simultaneously Efficient Heat Dissipation and Energy Absorption

Abstract

AbstractLight‐weight, high‐strength metamaterials with excellent heat dissipation and energy absorption capabilities are of great interest to aerospace and automobile applications. Particularly, innovative structure design and its successful realization are paramount but often challenging due to the vast design space and associated complex manufacturing. Herein, in this study, inspired by pomelo peel's superior shielding protection to the pulp, bionic polyhedron metamaterials (BPMs) that imitate the pomelo peel are designed and realized by metal 3D printing to achieve not only superior heat dissipation but also high energy absorption. Guided by experiments and numerical simulations, the BPM with circular struts possesses the highest Nusselt number, lowest pressure drop, and friction factor at Re = 7000–30000. Above results integrated lead to that the BPM with circular struts exhibit a higher thermal efficiency index that exceeds 1 at 0.92 porosity. Furthermore, the BPM with circular struts possesses moderate specific energy absorption in existing mechanical metamaterials for their corresponding density, which has potential for gas turbines and some cooling structures. The above findings will guide the design of metamaterials with high heat dissipation and energy absorption.