Additive Manufacturing Development of Naval Platform Heat Exchangers
Navy SBIR FY2016.1


Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2016.1
Topic No.: N161-071
Topic Title: Additive Manufacturing Development of Naval Platform Heat Exchangers
Proposal No.: N161-071-0621
Firm: Applied Optimization, Inc.
714 E Monument Ave Ste 204
Dayton, Ohio 45402
Contact: Anil Chaudhary
Phone: (937) 431-5100
Web Site: http://www.appliedO.com
Abstract: The research objective of this proposal is to demonstrate feasibility of Additive Manufacturing (AM) ICME to develop a conformal design heat exchanger (HeX) for the cooling of power electronics hardware. The conformal geometry of the cooling channels will be developed in order to attain higher thermal efficiency as compared to a commercial benchmark. The cross-section of the cooling channels will be evaluated for manufacturability using the selective laser melting process. Thermal FEA and thermal-CFD analysis will be utilized to develop the HeX design. The SLM process design will be performed using thermal-CFD analysis of the melt pool physics as well as residual stress and distortion analysis of the build. Two test articles will be fabricated using the SLM process. One of the articles will be destructively tested in order to characterize the uniformity of weight and wall thickness. The second test article will be interfaced with laboratory equipment in order to perform stress tests and to characterize its thermal efficiency. The ICME procedure will be utilized to determine the potential failure locations and the HeX design will be modified in order to include sensor ports for the collection of data that can be utilized to support qualification.
Benefits: In addition to attaining higher thermal efficiency through conformal design HeX, this project will enable the determination of potential failure locations using ICME and enable the collection of data that can be utilized to develop evaluation criteria and methodologies for AM component qualification. The commercial application would be for the development of high efficiency conformal design HeX to cool power electronics hardware. The commercial product will be software to orchestrate the ICME-based development of a conformal design of HeX.

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