Enhanced Air-Side Heat Transfer in an Additively Manufactured Polymer Composite Heat Exchanger

The present study builds upon our prior work in integrating additive manufacturing into next-generation heat/mass exchanger devices. In this paper, we will report an analysis of the fabrication, testing, and performance of an additively manufactured polymer composite heat exchanger. This heat exchanger utilizes a novel approach to achieve enhanced air side heat transfer coefficients and overall mass reduction. This device relies on the Cross-Media Fiber concept where two fluid flows are thermally linked by high-conductivity fins, passing through a low-conductivity channel wall. Through this, the authors have met the required pressure containment, coefficient of performance, and heat flow rate targets, which were 28 psig, 100 and 150 W respectively. The advances that are discussed throughout this paper have allowed this novel polymer composite heat exchanger to be produced through a newly developed form of additive manufacturing that can potentially lead to the economical production of large scale Cross-Media Fiber heat exchangers.