Characterization of Additively Manufactured Heat Exchanger Tubing

Additive Manufacturing brings unique opportunities to the fabrication world, especially for complex, high value added components that are challenging if not impossible to fabricate using traditional technologies. There are several different technologies that can be used for making metal additive manufactured parts. In this study, selective laser melting (SLM) was used to fabricate conceptual process tubing. Through an evolutionary design and build process coupled with thermal and mechanical modeling, tubing with a unique additive manufacturing compatible geometry has been fabricated. This paper will briefly describe the application, which has a thermal swing from nominally 140°C to −40°C, the evolution of the design, and the characterization conducted to date. Finally, the challenges of designing and printing a coiled segment of this tubing that is 150 cm long will be described. The results will include non-destructive and destructive testing and evaluation. The data from tensile testing the first and second generations of the tubing will be compared. The properties and characterization of the surrogate coil will be described and discussed. Future component development and testing will be discussed for this unique AM process tubing.