Experimental Characterization of an Additively Manufactured Inconel 718 Heat Exchanger for High-Temperature Applications

Fabio Battaglia, Martinus Arie, Xiang Zhang, Michael Ohadi and Amir Shooshtari ()
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Fabio Battaglia: Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Martinus Arie: Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Xiang Zhang: Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Michael Ohadi: Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Amir Shooshtari: Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: This work presents the experimental results of a novel, air-to-air, additively manufactured manifold-microchannel heat exchanger with straight fins on both sides. The heat exchanger was made of Inconel 718 using a direct metal laser sintering technique. The overall core size of the heat exchanger was 94 mm × 87.6 mm × 94.4 mm, with a fin thickness of 0.220 mm on both the hot and cold sides. The heat exchanger was tested with pressurized nitrogen gas at 300 °C and 340 kPa for the hot side, while air at an ambient condition was used for the cold side. An overall heat transfer of 276 W/m 2 K was obtained for Reynolds number values of 132 and 79 for the cold and hot sides, respectively. A gravimetric heat transfer density ( Q / m ∆ T ) of 4.7–6.7 W/kgK and a volumetric heat transfer density ( Q / V ∆ T ) of 6.9–9.8 kW/m 3 K were recorded for this heat exchanger with a coefficient of performance value that varied from 42 to 52 over the operating conditions studied here. The experimental pressure drop results were within 10% of the numerical values, while the corresponding heat transfer results were within 17% of the numerical results, mainly due to imperfections in the fabrication process. Despite this penalty, the performance of the tested heat exchanger was superior to the conventional plate-fin heat exchangers: more than 60% of improvements in both gravimetric and volumetric heat transfer densities were recorded for the entire range of experimental data.

Keywords: high temperature; manifold microchannel; enhanced heat exchanger; nickel-based additive manufacturing; direct metal laser sintering (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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