Design, optimization, and validation of a triply periodic minimal surface based heat exchanger for extreme temperature applications

Dharmalingam, Lalith; O'Malley, Brian; Tancabel, James; Aute, Vikrant

doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2025.126797

Design, optimization, and validation of a triply periodic minimal surface based heat exchanger for extreme temperature applications

Journal Article · Mon Feb 17 00:00:00 EST 2025 · International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2025.126797· OSTI ID:2540150

Dharmalingam, Lalith ^[1]; O'Malley, Brian ^[1]; ^[1]; Aute, Vikrant ^[1]

University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)

Heat exchanger (HX) innovation offers potential for significant improvements in energy efficiency for a host of applications including but not limited to aviation and power generation cycles. Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS) have received significant attention in recent years due to their incredibly high surface area density, which makes them very attractive from a heat transfer point of view. Recent efforts have largely focused on thermal-hydraulic characterization of the many available TPMS and the testing of small-scale HX prototypes. However, practical implementation remains largely unexplored, partially due to the extreme computational cost associated with accurately simulating these complex structures. In this work, we present the design, simulation, and optimization of a TPMS-HX for high temperature (900 °C) and pressure (25 MPa) applications. Detailed analysis of HX sub-sections is conducted to define the smallest repeatable section which may be used to characterize the thermal-hydraulic performance of the entire HX, enabling rapid design and iteration with significantly reduced computational cost. Compared to preliminary results for a water-to-water experiment, calibrated heat transfer and pressure drop predictions were within ±5 % and ±10 %, respectively. Optimization results show a 10x increase in volumetric power density over the initial design, which is verified against a parametric exhaustive search of the HX design space. Furthermore, it was found that reducing the unit cell hydraulic diameter cell plays the largest role in increasing heat transfer, increasing the surface area density and enabling a more compact and efficient HX.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: General Electric, Boston, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)

Grant/Contract Number:: AR0001120

OSTI ID:: 2540150

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2519288

Journal Information:: International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Journal Name: International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer Vol. 242; ISSN 0017-9310

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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