Experimental Investigation of Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer in Porous Media Based on 3d Printed Triple Periodic Minimum Surfaces

Abstract

Porous media are widely preferred for heat transfer applications because of complex structure and high porosity. It is relatively easy to produce complex structures with the additive manufacturing method. In this study, Gyroid-based triple periodic minimal surface is produced ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and PLA (polylactic acid) materials using 3D printers. The pressure drops and heat transfer in the porous structure with the gyroid model are investigated experimentally. Permeability and Forchheimer coefficients are determined for each gyroid porous channel. While the permeability and Forchheimer coefficient of the porous medium of PLA were calculated as 2.97 x 10-8 m2 and 0.07, respectively, the permeability and Forchheimer coefficient of the porous medium of ABS were calculated as 5.52 x 10-8 m2 and 0.09. The correlation between the Reynolds number and pressure drop per length is given. The gyroid structure-filled channel is heated by an asymmetric heat flux on the bottom side. The convection heat transfer in polymer-based porous media was investigated. Also, the correlation between the Nusselt number and the Reynolds number based on permeability is presented. While the Nusselt correlation of the PLA porous medium was obtained as $N{u_K} = 0.08Re_K<^>{0.57}$NuK=0.08ReK0.57, the Nusselt correlation of the ABS porous medium was found to be $N{u_K} = 0.09Re_K<^>{0.61}$NuK=0.09ReK0.61. There are improvements in heat transfer due to the flow mixing effect of the porous medium. The study aims to broaden the current knowledge of heat transfer in polymer porous structures. Especially, this study investigates heat transfer and flow in polymer-based porous structures with a low thermal conductivity coefficient produced by 3D printers.