AM 4 Industry, an Austria-based Collective Research Network (CORNET), has published a handbook detailing the design and simulation of AM cooling channels for industrial tooling. The manual acts as an operational guide forOpenFoam, an open-source software platform used to simulate computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
AM 4 Industry
AM 4 Industry is a large-scale project headed byEcoplus PlasticsandMechatronics Clusterin Austria. The initiative aims to detail guidelines for individuals and companies concerned with various industrial additive manufacturing applications, enabling them to make informed decisions on AM production implementation. Participants in the project have now begun to publish manuals acting as guides for their respective additive manufacturing applications.
3D printed cooling channels
This particular manual focuses on the simulation of 3D printed cooling channels using the open-source CFD platform, OpenFoam. Production tools require cooling channels within them to counteract the process of creep, or heat deformation, which results in a loss of precision and potential failure over time. Providing a guideline for simulation engineers, students, and researchers helps users design complex cooling channel geometries which can result in increased tool durability, performance, and output.
The authors of the manual chose to work with OpenFoam due to its adaptability – it can be used for various applications. There are a number of AM simulation platforms available on the market, but many of them cannot be used for cooling channel simulations. OpenFoam is written in C++, therefore it can be altered using software code and solvers to deviate from its intended purpose of simulating fluid flow problems.
The manual in question combined OpenFoam with the chtMultiRegion solver, which allowed the team to study the thermodynamic interactions between solids and liquids, as well as generate an application-oriented design for complex internal 3D printed cooling channels. The work can now be used to give engineers “an application-oriented introduction to OpenFoam, as well as an overview of how to work with it,” according to AM 4 Industry.
The handbookis titled “Introduction to OpenFoam and chtMultiRegion using an application-oriented example”. It is co-authored by Thomas Mitterlehner, Eva Kobler and Georg Steinbichler from theInstitute of Polymer Injection Moulding and Process Automation, Johannes Kepler University.
3D printed cooling channels have applications that reach far beyond just production tooling.Dutch Superbike manufacturerElectric Superbike Twentehas previously collaborated withK3D, a 3D metal printing company, to3D print a new cooling shell for its electric bike motors. Elsewhere, R&D focusedGE Researchhas used 3D printing to manufacture anultra-efficient, low-emission heat exchanger for power generation equipmentas part of a $2.5M project.
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Featured image shows Johannes Kepler University Linz campus. Photo via Johannes Kepler University.
