Unifying theory for natural and man-made flow systems: an application to design of porous material for particulate control

Abstract

According to constructal theory, the flow architecture emerges in time such that it provides progressively greater access to its currents. The emergence of flow architecture in nature is analogous to emergence of configuration in man-made (engineered) flow systems, and that features of materialization of design can be predicted based on the constructal theory. To support this view, we show that the emergence of configuration in natural flow systems can be approached based on the constructal law. Man-made flow systems achieve high performance by acquiring the suitable architecture (configuration). In this study, we also rely on the constuctal law to design a device for particulate matter control with an optimized function. Therefore, the emergence of optimal flow architecture is analogous to both natural and man-made systems. The features of materialization of design do not occur by chance, and can be explained or predicted based on this physical law.