Numerical optimization of additively manufactured heat exchangers

Compact heat exchangers become more and more crucial to meet future demands for cost-effective and energy-efficient energy systems in a wide range of applications, including e.g. light-weight mobile systems and heat pumps with environmentally-friendly, yet often flammable or toxic, refrigerants. Aim of the project is to improve the overall energy efficiency and material use for such compact heat exchangers, using emerging methods and methodologies in automated design, additive manufacturing (AM), and experimental techniques. In the scope of the PhD thesis efficient 3D shape optimization of the fins in heat exchanger fin arrays is developed while taking constraints imposed by the AM process into account. Heat exchanger design is robustly optimized for selected use-cases and experimental verification of the performance gains is developed.