Design benefits with Additive Manufacturingfrom a convective heat transfer perspective

Abstract: Nowadays manufacturing processes are rapidly developing. Salt-bath dip brazing is a conventional manufacturing method commonly used by Saab AB to fuse aluminium components in a high temperature salt bath. However conventional manufacturing methods have shown some limitations. Additive Manufacturing, or 3D printing, is a newer technology which has become very popular in the industry offering competitive advantages regarding production time and size, and structural complexity of the components among other aspects. In this work, Additive Manufacturing is investigated to assess if the performance of heat sinks can be increased compared to the salt-bath dip brazing method. Geometrical shapes of heat sink-fins were studied by empirical research to compare their characteristics in air-flow, convection and pressure drop. Eight different geometrical shapes have been analyzed using Additive Manufacturing, and the control plate fins was used as a reference for comparison with salt-bath dip brazing. It was found out that the NACA 0010 fins and Square Grid fins geometries gave the best performance with a 63% and 64% decrease in pressure drop per diverted energy compared to the control plate fins, respectively.