This project is a collaboration with Centre Technique Industriel de la Plasturgie et des Composites (CTIPC). The focus is to develop topology optimisation tools for the automatic design of conformal cooling channels. Conformal cooling channels are curved, geometry-following passages that closely match the shape of the moulded part, ensuring uniform heat removal and reducing cycle times compared to conventional straight channels. They require additive manufacturing and topology optimisation is an ideal tool to solve the inverse problems of generating the cooling channels automatically. Our topology optimisation formulation allows us to control both the cooling efficiency and the temperature uniformity, which is highly important to ensure high quality parts with minimal warpage.
We have published our approach for and have demonstrated the approach for real-life three-dimensional problems, which will soon be published.