Investigation of Secondary Structures for Pillow Plate Heat Exchangers

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Werner Homberg; Professor Dr.-Ing. Eugeny Kenig
• Subject Area: Primary Shaping and Reshaping Technology, Additive Manufacturing
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 456661476

The aim of the of the planned research project is to develop a methodology and also production technologies for the design and manufacture of optimized secondary structures for pillow plate heat exchangers. These should have significantly improved application properties. Two focal areas of work thus result for the planned research. The first of these is the research and development of application-specific optimized structuring, which should be carried out against the background of easy producibility of the structures. A method is to be developed to this end for thermohydraulic multi-scale modelling on the basis of CFD models which can be used for the reliable determination of optimised pillow plate secondary structures for specified application cases. The second focal area, which is closely interlinked with the first one, consists in developing a manufacturing technology that is suitable for introducing optimised secondary structuring into sheet metal semi-finished products. It should be possible in particular to produce very fine contours having small radii, with a simultaneously high surface quality and also shape and dimensional accuracy, in a reliable process. This should be cost-efficient especially for components produced in small quantities. Incrementally-applied electrohydraulic forming is a promising approach here. In order to further develop this method for the processing of larger-area sheet metal semi-finished products suitable for pillow plate heat exchangers, appropriate FEM models are to be created and elaborated on the basis of these tools (tool systems) and process control or process control strategies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants