  We consider the problem of optimizing heat transport through an
incompressible fluid layer. Modeling passive scalar transport by
advection-diffusion, we maximize the mean rate of total transport by a
divergence-free velocity field. Subject to various boundary conditions and
intensity constraints, we prove that the maximal rate of transport scales
linearly in the r.m.s. kinetic energy and, up to possible logarithmic
corrections, as the $1/3$rd power of the mean enstrophy in the advective
regime. This makes rigorous a previous prediction on the near optimality of
convection rolls for energy-constrained transport. Optimal designs for
enstrophy-constrained transport are significantly more difficult to describe:
we introduce a "branching" flow design with an unbounded number of degrees of
freedom and prove it achieves nearly optimal transport. The main technical tool
behind these results is a variational principle for evaluating the transport of
candidate designs. The principle admits dual formulations for bounding
transport from above and below. While the upper bound is closely related to the
"background method", the lower bound reveals a connection between the optimal
design problems considered herein and other apparently related model problems
from mathematical materials science. These connections serve to motivate
designs.
