P.P. Pai Raikar
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Adjoint-based optimization of thermal components using a CAD-based parametrization
Development of methods and application to aerospace-grade heat exchangers
This dissertation documents research on shape optimization using the discrete adjoint method and CAD-based parametrization for the design of aerospace-grade heat exchangers. The main outcome of this work is the development of the optimization framework to concurrently optimize multiple heat transfer surfaces parametrized using a CAD method based on Non-Uniform Rational Basis Splines (NURBS) and the discrete adjoint method available in the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software SU2. The application of the design method is demonstrated for two-dimensional and three-dimensional heat transfer surfaces in configurations representative of aircraft condensers and evaporators, as well as heat sinks for thermal management. In this regard, two formulations of surface sensitivity are proposed such that the resulting optimal solutions can feature identical shapes using averaged sensitivities or non-identical shapes when optimized concurrently, albeit independently. Additionally, the feasibility of integrating the CFD-based method in system-level design and its potential for enhancing system performance are investigated.
The results obtained using the design method show that the application of this framework can achieve geometries of thermal components with reduced pressure drop and enhanced heat transfer coefficient compared to conventional designs. The automated design chain applied to a two-dimensional configuration representing tubular heat exchangers reduced the pressure drop significantly while constraining the heat transfer rate. Using three-dimensional shape optimization of pin-fins with conjugate heat transfer resulted in an unconventional fin shape that led to a simultaneous reduction in total pressure losses and an increase in heat transfer coefficient. These performance improvements of about 20% corresponding to optimal geometries obtained from shape optimization can lead to significant gains in the performance of the system, as demonstrated by its application in the early phase of system-level design reported in this work. Future developments on such a design method have the potential to conceive designs of the next-generation heat exchangers that could be deployed in propulsion systems, enabling carbon-neutral aviation. ...
This dissertation documents research on shape optimization using the discrete adjoint method and CAD-based parametrization for the design of aerospace-grade heat exchangers. The main outcome of this work is the development of the optimization framework to concurrently optimize multiple heat transfer surfaces parametrized using a CAD method based on Non-Uniform Rational Basis Splines (NURBS) and the discrete adjoint method available in the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software SU2. The application of the design method is demonstrated for two-dimensional and three-dimensional heat transfer surfaces in configurations representative of aircraft condensers and evaporators, as well as heat sinks for thermal management. In this regard, two formulations of surface sensitivity are proposed such that the resulting optimal solutions can feature identical shapes using averaged sensitivities or non-identical shapes when optimized concurrently, albeit independently. Additionally, the feasibility of integrating the CFD-based method in system-level design and its potential for enhancing system performance are investigated.
The results obtained using the design method show that the application of this framework can achieve geometries of thermal components with reduced pressure drop and enhanced heat transfer coefficient compared to conventional designs. The automated design chain applied to a two-dimensional configuration representing tubular heat exchangers reduced the pressure drop significantly while constraining the heat transfer rate. Using three-dimensional shape optimization of pin-fins with conjugate heat transfer resulted in an unconventional fin shape that led to a simultaneous reduction in total pressure losses and an increase in heat transfer coefficient. These performance improvements of about 20% corresponding to optimal geometries obtained from shape optimization can lead to significant gains in the performance of the system, as demonstrated by its application in the early phase of system-level design reported in this work. Future developments on such a design method have the potential to conceive designs of the next-generation heat exchangers that could be deployed in propulsion systems, enabling carbon-neutral aviation.
This study presents a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based optimization framework to enhance the performance of bare-tube heat exchangers. The framework comprises a CFD solver, an adjoint solver, and a CAD-based parametrization tool. This framework simultaneously optimizes the tube shape and layout to obtain an optimum heat exchanger configuration with a higher heat transfer rate and lower pressure drop. Firstly, a parametric study of the longitudinal pitch is performed that shows that increasing the longitudinal pitch results in an increase in pressure drop and heat transfer rate. Furthermore, the proposed framework was applied to optimize an in-line elliptical tube configuration. The optimum geometry showed a performance improvement of 29% as compared to the baseline geometry while satisfying the constraint on the heat transfer rate.