This paper reviews advanced heat transfer devices utilizing advanced manufacturing technologies, including well-established thermal management applications. Several factors have recently contributed to developing novel heat transfer devices. One of the potential technologies revolutionizing the field of energy conversion is additive manufacturing (AM), colloquially known as three-dimensional (3D) printing. This technology permits engineers to develop a product with a high level of freeform features both internally and externally within a complex 3D geometry. Among different AM approaches, selective laser melting (SLM) is a well-used technique for developing products with a lower cost-to-complexity ratio and quicker time production compared to other manufacturing processes. The integration of SLM technology into heat exchangers (HXs) and heat sinks (HSs) has a strong potential, especially to fabricate customized and complex freeform shapes. The aim of this research is to review the advancement in design complexities of different industrial heat transfer devices incorporating metal SLM fabrication. The review is not meant to put a ceiling on the AM process, but to enable engineers to have an overview of the capabilities of SLM technology in the field of thermal management applications. This review presents the opportunities and challenges related to the application of SLM technology in connection to novel HXs and HSs, as well as heat pipes (HPs). The latter are passive heat transfer devices utilized in many thermal control applications, especially related to electronics cooling and energy applications.

The utilization of selective laser melting technology on heat transfer devices for thermal energy conversion applications: A review

Performance comparison of pin fin in-duct flow arrays with various pin cross-sections.

Short pin-fin arrays are often used for cooling turbine airfoils, particularly near the trailing edge. An accurate heat transfer estimation from a pin-fin array should account for the total heat transfer over the entire wetted surface, which includes the pin surfaces and uncovered endwalls. One design question frequently raised is the actual magnitudes of heat transfer coefficients on both pins and endwalls. Results from earlier studies have led to different and often contradicting conclusions. This variation, in part, is caused by imperfect or unrealistic thermal boundary conditions prescribed in the individual test models. Either pins or endwalls, but generally not both, were heated in those previous studies. Using a mass transfer analogy based on the naphthalene sublimation technique, the present experiment is capable of revealing the individual heat transfer contributions from pins and endwalls with the entire wetted surface thermally active. The particular pin-fin geometry investigated, S/D = X/D = 2.5 and H/D = 1.0, is considered to be one of the optimal array arrangement for turbine airfoil cooling. Both inline and staggered arrays with the identical geometric parameters are studied for 5000 < Re < 25,000. The present results reveal that the general trends of the row-resolved heat transfer coefficients on either pins or endwalls are somewhat insensitive to the nature of thermal boundary conditions prescribed on the test surface. However, the actual magnitudes of heat transfer coefficients can be substantially different, due to variations in the flow bulk temperature. The present study also concludes that the pins have consistently 10 to 20 percent higher heat transfer coefficient than the endwalls. However, such a difference in heat transfer coefficient imposes very insignificant influence on the overall array-averagea heat transfer, since the wetted area of the uncovered endwalls is nearly four times greater than that of the pins.

/pdf/heat-transfer-contributions-of-pins-and-endwall-in-pin-fin-4gnkzc1yu6.pdf

Heat Transfer Contributions of Pins and Endwall in Pin-Fin Arrays: Effects of Thermal Boundary Condition Modeling

Tests have been conducted in a wind tunnel with seven types of heat sinks including plate fin, strip fin, and pin fin heat sinks. In the case of strip fin, and pin fin heat sinks, both in-line and staggered arrays have been studied. The pin fin heat sinks had circular and square cross-sections. For each type, tests were run with fin heights (H) of 10, 15, and 20 mm while the heat sink width (B) was kept constant and equal to 52.8 mm. In total, 42 different heat sinks were tested. The width of the wind tunnel duct (CB) was varied in such a way that results were obtained for B/CB=0.84, 0.53, and 0.33. The wind tunnel height (CH) was varied similarly, and data were recorded for H/CH=1, 0.67, and 0.33 while the duct Reynolds number was varied between 2000 through 16500. An empirical bypass correlation has been developed for the different fin designs. The correlation predicts the Nusselt number and the dimensionless pressure drop and takes into account the influence of duct height, duct width, fin height, fin thickness, and fin-to-fin distance. The correlation parameters are individual for each fin design. Further, a physical bypass model for plate fin heat sinks has been developed to describe the bypass effect.

Modeling of the thermal and hydraulic performance of plate fin, strip fin, and pin fin heat sinks-influence of flow bypass

Pressure drop and heat transfer of square pin-fin arrays in in-line and staggered arrangements

Modern high-performance gas turbine engines operate at high turbine inlet temperatures and require internal convection cooling of many of the components exposed to the hot gas flow. Cooling air is supplied from the engine compressor at a cost to cycle performance and a design goal is to provide necessary cooling with the minimum required cooling air flow. In conjunction with this objective, two families of pin fin array geometries which have potential for improving airfoil internal cooling performance were studied experimentally. One family utilizes pins of a circular cross section with various orientations of the array with respect to the mean flow direction. The second family utilizes pins with an oblong cross section with various pin orientations with respect to the mean flow direction. Both heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics are presented. The results indicate that the use of circular pins with array orientation between staggered and inline can in some cases increase heat transfer while decreasing pressure loss. The use of elongated pins increases heat transfer, but at a high cost of increased pressure loss. In conjunction with the present measurements, previously published results were reexamined in order to estimate the magnitude of heat transfer coefficients on the pin surfaces relative to those of the endwall surfaces. The estimate indicates that the pin surface coefficients are approximately double the endwall values.

D. E. Metzger

Papers

Effects of Pin Shape and Array Orientation on Heat Transfer and Pressure Loss in Pin Fin Arrays

Pressure Loss Through Sharp 180 Deg Turns in Smooth Rectangular Channels