Manufacturability and Performance Study of Triply Periodic Minimal Surface Air-to-Air Heat Exchanger

Abstract The study tests 3D printability, heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop of two types of triply periodic minimal surface heat exchanger in order to develop new flow principles for compact heat exchanger design. Various generic plate heat exchanger designs are also tested to compare to the printed alternatives. Geometry variations for heat exchangers and laboratory testing air recuperators are modelled in SolidWorks software and manufactured mostly by UV LCD and FDM additive manufacturing methods. Digital light processing printing method has been found to be most successful in printing the TPMS structures, while using photopolymer materials. Literature studies conclude that the most promising structures are Schoen’s gyroid and Schwarz-diamond surfaces, which have been modelled and tested in several variations. Using these results, full size gyroid and Schwarz-D structure heat exchangers have been modelled, manufactured and tested. The results are compared and analysed to study the effect of advanced surface designs in heat transfer efficiency. The obtained results can be used in compact air-to-air thermal recuperator development as well as other low pressure heat exchanger applications, as the printed TPME heat exchangers outperform the plate heat exchangers in similar dimensions.