Numerical investigation of heat transfer enhancement by the stretching of triply periodic minimal surfaces

Abstract

Recent advances in additive manufacturing technology have enabled the creation of exotic designs for heat exchangers, such as those based on a gyroid triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS). These TPMS-based heat exchangers achieve exceptionally high heat transfer rates but also produce very high pressure losses. This study simulates the impact of unit cell stretching on the thermal and hydraulic performance of a TPMS-based heat exchanger. A periodic heat transfer model with constant wall temperature is employed across a range of Reynolds numbers, covering both laminar and turbulent regimes. The analysis shows that stretching the TPMS structure enhances thermal and hydraulic performance, up to 15 times depending on criteria. For a fixed heat transfer rate, stretching the TPMS reduces the relative pumping power, volume, and/or frontal area required. For example, stretching the TPMS by a factor of 5 enables the volume of the heat exchanger to be reduced by nearly an order of magnitude. These results indicate that stretched TPMS structures are promising for compact heat exchanger design.