Design & Validation of a 3D-printed Heat Exchanger Manifold

Metal additive manufacturing has enabled great diversity and design freedom in heat exchanger design. However, these benefits cannot be adequately realised without optimizing its ancillary components as well, specifically the inlet and outlet manifolds. Optimizing the manifolds can significantly improve the flow distribution inside the heat...

Bringing Glass Giants to life: Fabrication of mass-optimized structural glass components of complex form

Current research conducted at TU Delft focused on utilizing structural Topology Optimization (TO) for designing large monolithic cast glass structures with maximum stiffness and minimum mass. These structures demonstrated improved manufacturability in terms of time, energy, and cost efficiency due to their mass efficiency, which results in...

Topologically Optimised Cast Glass Shell: Topological optimisation and new fabrication methods for compressive free-form glass structures

Glass is a material which can be seen as a double-edged sword. Its monolithic, smooth, and transparent look transmits a sense of elegance and simplicity. However, due to its brittle mechanical property, it can create complex engineering challenges when intended for a structural load-bearing application. Many forget glass has a comparable...

Glass Giants: Mass-optimized massive cast glass slab

The current thesis aims to explore the potential of producing large-scale structural cast glass elements with the help of 3d printed sand moulds. Until now, mostly small blocks from structural cast glass have been generated in the building industry, revealing a research gap regarding massive components. Apart from the size, the unlimited shape...

Shaping transparent sand in sand: Fabricating topologically optimised cast glass column using sand moulds

This research investigates the potential of 3D printed sand moulds for casting structural glass column having optimised cross section. Conventionally, Glass, in architectural industry, has been used in form of sheets (Float glass) due to ease of fabrication of planar sheets, but in last few years, cast glass bricks have been used for creating...

Optimising 3D Printed Concrete Structures: Concrete additive manufacturing and topology optimisation

Additive manufacturing and 3D printing are rapidly developing digital fabrication techniques. After the first steps in printing of metals and plastics have been made, research from various groups around the world is now also focusing on printing in concrete and moving to larger scales. Using this technique it will be possible to create...