3D Printing Optimizes The Design Of The Heat Exchanger, And The Performance Is Increased By 20 Times

On September 22, 2021, the University of Illinois used 3D printing technology to produce the next generation of ultra-small heat exchangers, achieving a performance improvement of up to 2000%.

In order to design innovative geometric shapes, engineers have developed a three-dimensional heat exchanger design software with topology optimization. This software is specifically designed to optimize existing heat exchanger designs to maximize heat transfer while minimizing part weight, which can have a significant impact on industries such as energy, electronics, and aerospace.

William King, Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering, said: "We have developed shape optimization software to design high-performance heat exchangers. The software allows us to identify 3D designs that are significantly different from traditional designs and are better."

△The rendering of the optimized 3D printed heat exchanger, the picture comes from the University of Illinois

The necessity of Optimal Design of Heat Exchanger

The heat exchanger is mainly used to transfer heat energy from point A to point B. They are very important in many industries, and almost all complex systems that generate heat use heat exchangers. Including power generation systems, transportation, oil and gas processing, water desalination and thermal management of consumer electronics.

Currently, there are millions of heat exchangers in use worldwide, and their performance and efficiency are very important for reducing carbon emissions. People need high surface area heat exchangers to promote effective heat dissipation, while also being compact and lightweight. In some industries like aerospace, the size and quality of components have a direct impact on the performance, scope, and cost of the system.

In the past few decades, the design of the heat exchanger has not changed much. Mainly limited by traditional manufacturing technology, it is unable to manufacture complex structures, such as optimizing internal channels for heat flow. However, with the development of metal 3D printing technology, 3D heat exchanger designs that were previously considered impossible can be easily manufactured. All that is needed is a specialized software tool to design new and more effective devices.

Optimized tube-in-tube heat exchanger

The development team used three-dimensional design software to develop a special type of heat exchanger called a tube-in-tube exchanger, which is often used in drinking water systems and building energy systems. The characteristic of the tube-in-tube exchanger is that the inner tube is nested in the outer tube. They also set up a set of integrated fins inside the tube when designing, which is an internal design feature that can only be achieved by 3D printing technology.

After the design was finalized, the engineers printed the heat exchanger with AlSi10Mg and performed performance tests in a laboratory environment. The power density of the 3D printed heat exchanger is 26.6 watts/cubic centimeter, and the specific power is 15.7 kW/kg, which is about 20 times higher than similar commercial heat exchangers.

Nenad Miljkovic, associate professor of the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, said: "We have designed, manufactured, and tested an optimized tube-in-tube heat exchanger. The volumetric power density of the optimized heat exchanger is approximately higher than that of the current state-of-the-art commercial tube-in-tube equipment. 20 times".

▲The internal structure and surrounding system of the heat exchanger, the picture comes from the University of Illinois

This research has been published in the paper "Ultra-power-dense heat exchanger development through genetic algorithm design and additive manufacturing". It was co-authored by Hyunkyu Moon, Davis McGregor, Nenad Miljkovic and William King.