Abstract
In order to meet increasing power-dissipation requirements of the electronics industry, compact, low-cost, and lightweight heat exchangers (HXs) are desired. With proper design, materials, and manufacture, polymer composite heat exchangers could meet these requirements. This paper presents a novel crossflow air-to-water, low-cost, and lightweight metal-polymer composite HX. This HX, which is entirely additively manufactured, utilizes a novel cross-media approach that provides direct heat exchange between air and liquid sides by using connecting fins. A robust numerical model was developed, which includes the dimensional effects of additive manufacturing. The study consists of a simplified 3D CFD model based on ellipsoidal-shaped staggered tube banks for the laminar range. It then uses an analytical approach to compute entire HX performance. The model is validated experimentally within 8% for thermal performance, 12% for air-side impedance, and 18% for water-side impedance. Finally, HX is compared with a conventional CPU radiator and performs within 10% of the conventional unit for reasonable flow rates and pressure-drop ranges. Moreover, HX also provides added design and cost advantages over the conventional unit, which makes the HX a potential candidate for electronic cooling applications.
Highlights
Due to the fact that compact heat exchangers are an integral part of energy exchange processes, their designs have continuously evolved to meet the growing demands of diverse industries
This concept is referred to as the crossmedia approach, and heat exchangers (HXs) are referred to as integrated cross-media HXs
The thermal and hydrodynamic performance of integrated cross-media HXs (iCMHXs) is quantified by derived parameters, such as heat transfer rate, pumping work, and measured parameters, such as air-side and water-side pressure drops
Summary
Due to the fact that compact heat exchangers are an integral part of energy exchange processes, their designs have continuously evolved to meet the growing demands of diverse industries. The polymer head prints layers of polymer media to build air-side and liquid-side channels using FDM while the metal head prints bare metal wires that continuously lay over the polymer media using EFCAM such that they form a direct heat transfer route between the air-side and liquid-side channels This concept is referred to as the crossmedia approach, and HXs are referred to as integrated cross-media HXs (iCMHXs). In addition to the direct heat transfer route, the novelty of the iCMHX design is further enhanced due to in-built integrated manifolds, double liquid pass flow, small diameter metal wires, and, if desired, thick polymer walls.
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