Selective laser melting of heat transfer devices

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -To fabricate and characterise novel heat sinks manufactured by selective laser melting (SLM). The investigation explores features of SLM produced heat sinks that may be exploited to improve their heat transfer capability. Design/methodology/approach -The study was conducted on heat sinks manufactured from 316L stainless steel and aluminium 6061. The heat transfer devices' thermal and pressure drop performances were determined by experimental test. Findings -The research demonstrates the performance enhancements that can be realised by using novel heat sink designs, fabricated by SLM, over conventional pin fin arrays. aluminium 6061 is used with the process to illustrate the improvement in heat transfer provided by higher conductivity feedstock materials. Research limitations/implications -Although the manufacturing technique is still in the development stage and the heat transfer devices that have so far been manufactured should not be considered optimal, the potential for creative new designs and applications is clear. This study highlights the need to develop the SLM process parameters to allow the repeatable production of heat transfer devices from higher conductivity metals with controllable surface finishes. Originality/value -This paper outlines the design issues and performance of novel heat transfer devices fabricated using SLM. A new material, aluminium 6061, is introduced to the family of materials that can be processed with SLM and example heat sinks are tested.

Convective heat transfer and pressure losses across novel heat sinks fabricated by Selective Laser Melting

“…A perceived weakness that has prevented the SLM process from being used more widely to fabricate heat sinks is the poor thermal conductivities of the materials used, which are in the range of 18-22 W/m K. A recent advance was made by Wong et al [30] where aluminium 6061, which has a bulk thermal conductivity of 170 W/m K, was successfully used with the SLM process. Although components produced in that study were only 90% dense and the effective thermal conductivity was just 70 W/m K, this is a significant improvement on the thermal conductivities of other materials commonly used with the SLM process.…”

Net-shape manufacturing using hybrid selective laser melting/hot isostatic pressing

“…The influence of laser process parameters and the build direction on the microstructure and the density of the SLM parts have been investigated by many workers. Parts made by SLM, show microstructural and mechanical properties different from those found in conventionally manufactured parts (Read et al, 2015, Qiu et al, 2015, Mumtaz and Hopkinson, 2009, Wong et al, 2007, Mumtaz and Hopkinson, 2010, Chantarapanich et al, 2014, Simhambhatla and Karunakaran, 2015, Li et al, 2016.…”

Effect of the selective laser melting process parameters on some properties of the components manufactured from AlSi10Mg alloy powder

“…Density results are expressed as relative density by taking materials' bulk density as 2.68 g/cm 3 . Microstructures were observed under a Zeiss Axioscop 40 Pol polarizing microscope.…”

“…The alloy combination of aluminium, silicon and magnesium results in a significant increase in strength and hardness which might even reach 300 MPa and 100 HBS, respectively, by applying a proper heat treatment [2]. Selective Laser Melting (SLM) of AlSi10Mg, may be interesting to open new application areas such as heat sinks with complicated geometry [3], and therefore is taken under investigation in this study. The process optimization of SLM for this alloy is not straightforward due to high reflectivity and conductivity of the material.…”