Constructal Law and the Unifying Principle of Design

Design happens everywhere, whether in animate objects (e.g., dendritic lung structures, bacterial colonies, and corals), inanimate patterns (river basins, beach slope, and dendritic crystals), social dynamics (pedestrian traffic flows), or engineered systems (heat dissipation in electronic circuitry). This “design in nature” often takes on remarkably similar patterns, which can be explained under one unifying Constructal Law. This book explores the unifying power of the Constructal Law and its applications in all domains of design generation and evolution, ranging from biology and geophysics to globalization, energy, sustainability, and security. 

The Constructal Law accounts for the universal tendency of flow systems to morph into evolving configurations that provide greater and easier access over time. The Constructal Law resolves the many and contradictory ad hoc statements of “optimality”, end design, and destiny in nature, such as minimum and maximum entropy production and minimum and maximum flow resistance, and also explains the designs that are observed and copied in biomimetics.

Constructal Law and the Unifying Principle of Design covers the fundamentals of Constructal Theory and Design, as well as presenting a variety of state-of-the-art applications. Experts from the biological, physical and social sciences demonstrate the unification of all design phenomena in nature, and apply this knowledge to novel designs in modern engineering, such as vascularization for self-healing and self-cooling materials for aircraft, and tree fins and cavities for heat transfer enhancement.

Preface: Constructal law, design in nature, and complexity

Chapter 1. The Constructal Design of Humanity on the Globe, A. Bejan and S. Lorente

Chapter 2. Towards a Quantitative Unifying Theory of Natural Design of Flow Systems: Emergence and Evolution, A. F. Miguel

Chapter 3. Leaf Shapes and Venation Patterns, A. H. Reis

Chapter 4. Drainage Basins Evolution with Non-Erodible Regions, M. R. Errera and C. A. Marin

Chapter 5. Software Evolution and the Constructal Law, S. Perin

Chapter 6. Constructal Design of High Conductivity Inserts, J. A. Souza and J. C. Ordonez

Chapter 7. Constructal Design of T-shaped Water Distribution Networks, P. Bieupoude, Y. Azoumach and P. Neveu

Chapter 8. The Constructal Theory of Electrokinetic Transport through a Porous System, S. Lorente

Chapter 9. Constructal Theory Applied to Vascular Countercurrent Networks, Weizhong Dai

Chapter 10. Constructal Design of Animate and Inanimate Systems: an Answer to Consumerism?  J. V. C. Vargas

Chapter 11. Constructal Design of Rectangular conjugate Cooling Channels, T. Bello- Ochende, O. T. Olakoyejo, and J. P. Meyer

Chapter 12. The Flow of Stresses:  Constructal Design of Perforated Plates Subjected to Tension or Buckling, L. A. Isoldi, M. V. Real, A. L. G. Correia, J. Vaz, E. D. dos Santos and L. A. O. Rocha

Chapter 13. Equipartition of Joulean Heat in Thermoelectric Generators, A. K. Pramanick

Chapter 14. Constructal Design of Refrigeration Devices, H. Zhang, X. Liu, R. Xiong and S. Zhu

Chapter 15. Constructal Design of Vortex Tubes, E. D. dos Santos, C. H. Marques, G. Stanescu, L. A. Isoldi and L. A. O. Rocha

Chapter 16. Constructal Design of Wave Energy Converters, E. D. dos Santos, B. N. Machado, N. Lopes, J. A. Souza, P. R. F. Teixeira, M. N. Gomes, L. A. Isoldi and L. A. O. Rocha

Chapter 17. Constructal Design of Thermal Systems, L. A. O. Rocha, E. D. dos Santos, D. C. Cunha, F. L. Garcia,  G. Lorenzini, C. Biserni, M. Letzow, J. A. V. Costa, J. A. Souza and L. A. Isoldi

Index