Design and additive manufacturing of Ti-6Al-4V test-piece for use in aeronautical turboshaft engine heat exchanger

Abstract

While post-compression intercooling is commonly used to modify the performance characteristics of traditional turbocharged internal combustion engine layouts, there may be benefits to installing similar modifications in aeronautical turboshaft engines. The rise of Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques offers the potential for lighter and more compact heat exchanger designs to be manufactured. To this end, a heat exchanger was designed to cool the charge air supplied by the compressor stages of a turboshaft engine. Using dimensional analysis techniques, a model was manufactured to assess the suitability of a heat exchanger produced using AM for aeronautical turboshaft engines.