Heat transfer improvement using additive manufacturing technologies: a review

Abstract

To provide a comprehensive review of additive manufacturing use in heat transfer improvement and to carry out the economic feasibility of additive manufacturing compared to conventional manufacturing. Heat transfer improvement is particularly interesting for different industrial sectors due to its economic, practical, and environmental benefits. Three heat transfer improvement techniques are used: active, passive, and compound.According to numerous studies on heat transfer enhancement devices, most configurations with strong heat transfer performance are geometrically complex. Thus, those configurations cannot be easily manufactured using conventional manufacturing. With additive manufacturing, almost any configuration can be manufactured, with the added benefit that the produced parts’ surface characteristics can enhance heat transfer. It can, however, lead to a significant pressure drop increase that will reduce the overall performance. In the given article, a comparison of the capital cost of a 100 MW parabolic trough power plant has been carried out, considering two types of solar receivers; the first is manufactured using conventional methods, and the second uses additive manufacturing. The heat transfer of the new receiver configuration is investigated using computational fluid dynamics through ANYS Fluent.Although the cost of additive manufacturing machines and materials is high compared to conventional manufacturing, the outcome revealed that the gain in efficiency when using additive-manufactured receivers leads to a reduction in the number of receiver tubes and the number of solar collectors needed in the solar field It implies a considerable reduction of parabolic trough collector plant capital cost, which is 20.7%. It can, therefore, be concluded that, even if initial setup expenses are higher, additive manufacturing could be more cost-effective than traditional manufacturing.With the reduction of the parabolic trough collector plant capital cost, the levelized cost of electricity will eventually be reduced, which will play a role in increasing the use of solar thermal energy.No review studies discuss the manufacturing potential and cost-effectiveness potential of additive manufacturing when producing heat transfer improvement equipment, especially when producing long pieces. In addition, the paper uses a novel receiver configuration to investigate the economic aspect.