Topology optimization of tribological composites for multifunctional performance at sliding interfaces

This paper presents the first application of topology optimization to designing multifunctional tribological composites. In particular, composites are designed to minimize temperature rise caused by frictional heating associated with wear at sliding interfaces. Wear and frictional heating both have significant influence on the performance of tribological composite systems. A steady-state heat transfer model is used to obtain the thermal field within the sliding body, including a frictional heat flux boundary condition determined by the steady-state wear response of the bi-material composite sliding interface. The material thermal conductivity and frictional heat generated within each material are interpolated using the Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization optimization method. The optimization problem is solved using a gradient-based optimizer, the Method of Moving Asymptotes, with sensitivities obtained by the adjoint method. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and utility of the established optimization framework. It is found that the average and maximum temperature rises are reduced by 40–60% compared to reference structures with the same material volume fractions.