New 4th Year Undergraduate Course on Constructal Design of Energy-System Configuration

这门课程正在向越来越小的规模发展，这是当前竞赛的一个重要方面。终极的、有用的设备总是宏观的。制造更小部件的成功越大，安装大量此类部件并将它们与保持正常工作所需的电流(热、流体、电力)连接起来的挑战就越大。挑战在于推导出宏观装置的流动形态。建设就是从小到大，从相反的方向进行。这门课程是从原理上教学设计，设计是科学的一部分。构造性的设计概念让学生们看到热力学缺陷的图形意义。课程包括几何、变分原理、形状和结构的优化以及纸笔问题的解决。结构设计概念结合了工程学、生物物理学(例如，动物设计)和地球物理学(例如，河流流域)的几个分支，并教授人工设计和自然设计之间的联系。

The course is treating an important aspect of the current race toward smaller and smaller scales. The ultimate, useful devices are always macroscopic. The greater the success in making smaller components, the greater the challenge to install larger numbers of such components and to connect them with currents (heat, fluid, electricity), needed to keep them working properly. The challenge is to deduce the flow configuration of the macroscopic device. To construct is to proceed in the opposite direction, from small to large.This course is teaching design from principle, design as part of science. The constructal design concept opens the students' eyes to the graphic meaning of thermodynamic imperfection. The course is utilizing geometry, elements of variational calculus, the optimization of shapes and structures, and pencil & paper problem solving. The constructal design concept brings together several branches of engineering, biophysics (e.g., animal design), and geophysics (e.g., river basins), and teaches the links between man-made design and natural design.