Design and Simulation of 3D Printed Air-Cooled Heat Exchangers

The use of material extrusion with conductive fillers is explored for air-cooled heat exchangers. A general overview of the manufacturing tasks, design criteria, printability constraints, and modeling techniques is given, along with experimental data from prototype testing. The first sub-scale prototype design is an air-water crossflow heat exchanger designed to transfer around 100 Watts. It was printed with unfilled conventional ABS and the air channels designed with an array of round pin fins to enhance heat transfer. The prototype was also CT-scanned for inspection of the printed pin fin shapes.