Sylvie Lorente

Porous and Complex Flow Structures in Modern Technologies represents a new approach to the field, considering the fundamentals of porous media in terms of the key roles played by these materials in modern technology. Intended as a text for advanced undergraduates and as a reference for practicing engineers, the book uses the physics of flows in porous materials to tie together a wide variety of important issues from such fields as biomedical engineering, energy conversion, civil engineering, electronics, chemical engineering, and environmental engineering. Thus, for example, flows of water and oil through porous ground play a central role in energy exploration and recovery (oil wells, geothermal fluids), energy conversion (effluents from refineries and power plants), and environmental engineering (leachates from waste repositories). Similarly, the demands of miniaturization in electronics and in biomedical applications are driving research into the flow of heat and fluids through small-scale porous media (heat exchangers, filters, gas exchangers). Filters, catalytic converters, the drying of stored grains, and a myriad of other applications involve flows through porous media. By providing a unified theoretical framework that includes not only the traditional homogeneous and isotropic media but also models in which the assumptions of representative elemental volumes or global thermal equilibrium fail, the book provides practicing engineers the tools they need to analyze complex situations that arise in practice. This volume includes examples, solved problems and an extensive glossary of symbols.

Design course on the universal principle of configurations in nature and engineering-the constructal law Design with Constructal Theory offers a revolutionary new approach based on physics for understanding and predicting the designs that arise in nature and engineering, from the tree and the forest to the cooling of electronics, urban design, decontamination, and vascular smart materials. This book shows how you can use the method of constructal theory to design human-made systems in order to reduce trial and error and increase the system performance. First developed in the late 1990s, constructal theory holds that flow architecture arises from the natural evolutionary tendency to generate greater flow access in time and in flow configurations that are free to morph. It unites flow systems with solid mechanical structures, which are viewed as systems for the flow of stresses. Constructal theory unites nature with engineering, and helps us generate novel designs across the board, from high-density packages to vascular materials with new functionalities (self-healing, self-cooling), and from tree-shaped heat exchangers to svelte fluid-flow and solid structures. Design with Constructal Theory starts with basic principles and then shows how these principles are applied to understanding and designing increasingly complex systems. Problems and exercises at the end of each chapter give you an opportunity to use constructal theory to solve actual design problems. This book is based on a design course developed by the two authors for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students at Duke University and other universities all over the world. With the authors' expert guidance, students and professionals in mechanical, civil, environmental, chemical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering will understand natural systems, and then practice design as science, by relying on constructal strategies to pursue and discover novel and effective designs.

Porous and Complex Flow Structures in Modern Technologies represents a new approach to the field, considering the fundamentals of porous media in terms of the key roles played by these materials in modern technology. Intended as a text for advanced undergraduates and as a reference for practicing engineers, the book uses the physics of flows in porous materials to tie together a wide variety of important issues from such fields as biomedical engineering, energy conversion, civil engineering, electronics, chemical engineering, and environmental engineering. Thus, for example, flows of water and oil through porous ground play a central role in energy exploration and recovery (oil wells, geothermal fluids), energy conversion (effluents from refineries and power plants), and environmental engineering (leachates from waste repositories). Similarly, the demands of miniaturization in electronics and in biomedical applications are driving research into the flow of heat and fluids through small-scale porous media (heat exchangers, filters, gas exchangers). Filters, catalytic converters, the drying of stored grains, and a myriad of other applications involve flows through porous media. By providing a unified theoretical framework that includes not only the traditional homogeneous and isotropic media but also models in which the assumptions of representative elemental volumes or global thermal equilibrium fail, the book provides practicing engineers the tools they need to analyze complex situations that arise in practice. This volume includes examples, solved problems and an extensive glossary of symbols.