Exploring transitions in triply periodic minimal surfaces for additively manufacturable heat exchangers

Faculty: G. K. Ananthasuresh (ME), Kaushal Verma (Math)

Summary:

With the advent of additive manufacturing techniques, i.e., 3D printing with metals, polymers, and composites, there are unprecedented opportunities for novel heat exchangers. One of them is to use triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMSs) and adapt them for creating tortuous passages for hot and cold fluids for maximum heat exchange from hot to the cold fluid with constraints on pressure drops of both fluids. Modified TPMS patches define the interface between hot and cold fluids. Each TPMS primitive would have its own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to pressure drop, heat exchange, manufacturaility. It is known from structural design that heterogeneous designs consisting of multiple primitives are optimal. Therefore, the main problem to be addressed in this project is to explore smooth transitions among different TPMS primitives. For example, how can we parameterize a transition from two TPMS primitives that belong to the same class? Additionally, the resulting surfaces should be amenable for meshing for performing Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations as well as for tessellations necessary for 3D printing. Optimization using the transition surfaces is also within the scope of this project.

Required background:

Deep knowledge of calculus and algebra as well as familiarity with scientific computing, CFD, and programming