Designing composite microstructures with targeted properties

We present a numerical method to find specific composite microstructures wi th targeted effective properties. The effective properties that may be pres cribed are quite diverse and include transport, mechanical, and electromagn etic properties, as well as properties associated with coupled phenomena, s uch as piezoelectric and thermoelectric coefficients. We formulated the tar get problem as an optimization problem. To illustrate our general target op timization technique, we have successfully found two-phase composite micros tructures having specified effective electrical or thermal conductivities a t fixed volume fractions. The method can also be used to design microstruct ures with multifunctional characteristics.