Impacts of Material and Machine on the Variation of Additively Manufactured Cooling Channels

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Abstract While additive manufacturing (AM) can reduce component development time and create unique internal cooling designs, the AM process also introduces several sources of variability, such as the selection of machine, material, and print parameters. Because of these sources, wide variations in a part’s geometrical accuracy and surface roughness levels can occur, especially for small internal cooling features that are difficult to post-process. This study investigates how the selection of machine and material in the AM process influences variations in surface quality and deviations from design intent. Two micro-scale cooling geometries were tested: wavy channels and diamond-shaped pin fins. Test coupons were fabricated with five different additive machines and four materials using process parameters recommended by the manufacturers. The as-built geometry was measured non-destructively with computed tomography (CT) scans. To evaluate surface roughness, the coupons were cut-open and examined using a laser microscope. Three distinct roughness profiles on the coupon surfaces were captured including up-facing, down-facing, and channel walls built at 90 degrees to the build plate. Results indicated that both material and machine contribute to producing different roughness levels and very different surface morphologies. The roughness levels on the down-facing surfaces are significantly greater than on the up-facing or sidewall surfaces. Geometric analysis revealed that while the hydraulic diameter of all coupons was well captured, the pin cross section varied considerably. Along with characterizing the coupon surfaces, cooling performance was investigated by experimentally measuring friction factor and heat transfer. The variations in surface morphology as a function of material and machine resulted in heat transfer fluctuating by up to 50% between coupons featuring wavy channels and 26% for coupons with pin fin arrays. Increased arithmetic mean surface roughness led to increased heat transfer and pressure drop; however, a secondary driver in the performance of the wavy channels was found to be the roughness morphology, which could be described using the surface skewness and kurtosis.