Heat exchangers are integral parts for thermal management and find countless applications
in automotive, aerospace, energy, nuclear power plants, HVAC, etc. Due to
intensive research & development and technological advancements in manufacturing
technologies, there is an increasing rise in demand for high-performance heat exchangers.
In the automotive and aerospace industries, heat exchangers are expected
to deliver better thermal efficiency and improve the system’s overall functionality in
which they are installed by saving space and being lightweight. Additive Manufacturing
(AM) is a ground-breaking and promising technology that offers avenues of
opportunities to manufacture parts that were almost impossible to be produced with
conventional manufacturing and can improve part performance with lightweight and
compact designs. Laser-Based Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF), one of the well-known
AM techniques, provides freedom to design complex geometries and fabricate them
in a layer-by-layer fashion by exposing a high-density laser on a vertically moving
powder bed.
The study focuses on the application of AM in re-designing heat exchangers under
given design requirements using LPBF. It includes exploring Triply Periodic Minimal
Surfaces (TPMS) based structures such as gyroid and realizing them as heat exchanger
core. Computational gyroid-based heat exchanger core models were designed and
analyzed for thermal and fluid dynamics characteristics. A parametric study and
analysis based on gyroid TPMS network type, periodic length, thickness, aspect ratio,
and functional grading were carried out to optimize heat exchanger performance as
per design conditions and validate their manufacturability using LPBF. Successful
printable designs were further used to develop and manufacture prototypes.
The study concludes with a comparison between additively manufactured gyroid-based
design and conventional shell-and-tube design based on the thermal performance
from CFD analysis and the weight of prototypes. It was found that the thermal
performance from CFD analysis showed an 18.96% improvement, whereas weight
was reduced by 14.8% for the gyroid-based design as compared to the conventional shell-and-tube design. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/27546 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Singh Tandel, Shekhar Rammohan |
| Contributors | Elbestawi, Mo, Mechanical Engineering |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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