Heterogeneous flywheel modeling and optimization

The modeling or representation of heterogeneous objects is a recent research topic extensively published. Today, several rapid prototyping technologies are at a point where building heterogeneous components has become realizable; thus, methodologies to design these objects for manufacturing have to be developed. In this paper, we demonstrate how to apply Kumar and Dutta's modeling techniques to two different kinds of heterogeneous flywheels, one consisting of a finite number of distinct materials and the other consisting of two or more primary materials with continuous volume fraction variation (gradient materials). We also develop corresponding cell-based and basis-function-based multi-objective optimization methods, which can be extended to the multi-objective optimization design of other heterogeneous objects. Parameterization and numerical analysis are used to aid modeling and various calculations. Finally, we select two materials: tungsten-carbide and cobalt, to demonstrate the two methods. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.