Numerical Assessment of Hydraulic Properties of Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces Structures

Abstract

The present work is devoted to evaluating the hydraulic properties of Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS) structures, a generation of porous structures developed using the periodicity of trigonometric equations to generate triply periodic minimal surfaces. The thorough computational and experimental analysis coupled with verification assessment is key to using these product structures in thermal hydraulics especially to address industrial requirements. Here the hydraulic properties are computed by performing three-dimensional CFD analyses using Star-CCM+. Gyroid TPMS was hydraulically analyzed with a water flow in three-channel configurations (circular, square, and rectangular section), with the same hydraulic diameter and length, respectively 5.08cm and 10cm. Their porosity values range from 80% to 93% depending on the unit cell dimensions (chosen values were 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 25mm, and 30mm). The CFD models for the rectangular TPMS contain the maximum epistemic uncertainty of 19% following the ASME VV 20 codes. In preparation for the forthcoming test campaign, the hydraulic characteristic of the different channels is assessed comparatively, and the friction factors are computed and compared to reach a basic understanding of the parametric effect of channel shape and cell size.