Prof. Lap Mou Tam

Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, China

E-mail: fstlmt@um.edu.mo

Bio

Dr. Tam Lap Mou received his PhD in 1995 from Oklahoma State University, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Electromechanical Engineering, University of Macau. He is also the chairman of board of directors in the Institute for the Development and Quality, a nonprofit institute with more than 200 people, providing mechanical and electromechanical related engineering services and researches to the public. Prof. Tam has been involved in research projects funded by NSFC-FDCT and MOST-FDCT as the principle investigator. His research interests include single and multiphase heat transfer in mini channels, thermal management in additive manufacturing. He is a senior member of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society.

Title

A Systematic Investigation on the Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop Characteristics of SLM Printed Mini Tubes

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM), particularly selective laser melting (SLM), enables unprecedented design freedom for internal flow channels. However, a key limitation of SLM-printed channels is the inherent uncertainty in surface roughness and porosity prior to manufacturing, which significantly compromises the predictive accuracy of classical correlations and numerical simulations. In fact, the surface roughness and porosity of SLM-fabricated samples are highly sensitive to the selection of process parameters during manufacturing, which are inherently coupled and collectively influence the hydraulic and thermal performance of the components. Therefore, this study experimentally investigates the pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of circular SLM-printed horizontal mini channels fabricated by different combinations of printing parameters. The experimental results are also compared with data from traditional tubes. The findings demonstrate that the friction factors and heat transfer coefficients of all SLM-printed channels are completely different from those of traditional tubes in terms of data trend and magnitude. Furthermore, the SLM-printed channel with the best parameter combination showed a 30.62% improvement in the efficiency index  compared to the channel with the worst parameter combination across the entire flow regime. Hence, the thermal management devices with mini channels fabricated by the SLM method should consider the impact of fabrication parameter selections on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics to fulfill the design objectives.