Development of a Ceramic Micro Heat Exchanger – Design, Construction, and Testing

Abstract

This article presents the development of a ceramic micro heat exchanger. Starting from its geometrical design, results obtained from a simplified simulation of the heat exchanger efficiency will be given. The alumina microcomponents were manufactured by a rapid prototyping process chain. Here, stereolithography was combined with a low-pressure injection molding process for the rapid and precise manufacturing of ceramic components down to the micrometer range. A micro heat exchanger, joined from sintered components using a glass solder, was applied as a prototype and checked for its performance at a system pressure of 8 bar.

Casting and characterization of LiMgPO4 glass free LTCC tape for microwave applications

“…The thermal conductivity was measured using a laser flash thermal properties analyzer (Flash Line 2000, Anter Corporation, Pittsburgh, USA). 16 For the thermal conductivity measurement specific heat capacity of reference material (alumina) as a function of temperature was taken from literature. 17 Mixture of ethanol and xylene in the ratio 50:50 was used as the solvent for the preparation of tape casting slurry.…”

Testing and simulation of ceramic micro heat exchangers

“…The advantage of this joining method is based on the fact that individual channel plates may be finished to ensure coplanarity in the heat exchanger system. The development, manufacturing, and first results of the ceramic 'counterflow 2' micro heat exchanger (see Table 1) have been described in [6]. The alumina heat exchangers were built in the counterflow and crossflow mode.…”

Recent Developments in High Temperature Heat Exchangers: A Review

“…Several different types of ceramic heat exchangers have been fabricated and tested, including ceramic PFHXs, plate and frame heat exchangers, and ceramic shell-and-tube heat exchangers (Ferrato and Thonon, 1997;Federzoni et al, 2007;Alm et al, 2005;Schmidt et al, 2011). Some of these heat exchangers can operate up to a peak temperature of 1370°C (Ferrato and Thonon, 1997).…”

“…Larger dimensions, however, were a challenge to fabricate due to the cracks caused by the defects. In another work by Alm et al (Alm et al, 2005), a ceramic heat exchanger was fabricated using a combination of AM techniques (stereolithography) and injection molding. Additive manufacturing was used to create the injection molding mold.…”

“…For example, injection molding was used by Fedarzoni et al (Federzoni et al, 2007) to fabricate a plate-and-frame heat exchanger out of alumina with channel size of 0.5 mm x 0.5 mm. Similarly, shape molding (Schmidt et al, 2011) has been used to fabricate a plate-and-frame heat exchanger; slip casting has been used to fabricate a finned ceramic shell heat exchanger (Strumpf et al, 1982); and a combination of stereolithography and additive manufacturing technique with injection molding has been used to fabricate a plate-and-frame heat exchanger (Alm et al, 2005), all with features sizes as small as 250 microns.…”