Additive manufacturing allows the fabrication of relatively complex cooling structures, such as triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS), which offers high heat transfer per unit volume. This study shows the turbulent flow heat transfer and thermal stress of the Diamond-TPMS topology in the gas turbine blade trailing edge channel. The thermal-fluid-solid analysis of the Diamond-TPMS structure, made of directionally solidified GTD111, at the nearly realistic gas turbine condition is executed, and the results are compared with the conventional pin fin array at the Reynolds number of 30,000. Compared to the baseline pin fin structure, the Diamond-TPMS model distributes flow characteristics more uniformly throughout the channel. The overall heat transfer enhancement, friction factor ratio, and thermal performance are increased by 145.3%, 200.9%, and 32.5%, respectively. The temperature, displacement, and thermal stress in the Diamond-TPMS model are also distributed more evenly. The average temperature on the external surface in the Diamond-TPMS model is lower than the baseline pin fin array by 19.9%. The Diamond-TPMS network in the wedge-shaped cooling channel helps reduce the volume displacement due to the material thermal expansion by 29.3%. Moreover, the volume-averaged von Mises stress in the Diamond-TPMS structure is decreased by 28.8%.

This paper proposes two compact, efficient, and lightweight heat exchangers based on triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMSs). Designed in an annular configuration, the heat exchangers meet the requirements of micro gas turbines for compactness. Two prototypes of Diamond and Gyroid modular TPMS heat exchangers were fabricated using selective laser melting (SLM) with stainless steel. The flow and heat transfer experimental results indicate that, within a Reynolds number range of 200 to 800, the effectiveness of both heat exchangers remained above 0.62, and the average Nusselt numbers of the Diamond and Gyroid structures reached 3.60 and 4.06 times that of the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE), respectively. Although both heat exchangers exhibited relatively high friction factors, their overall performance surpassed that of conventional heat exchangers. Additionally, performance comparisons with existing TPMS heat exchangers revealed that smaller lattice sizes contribute to improved volume-based power density, although they result in increased pressure loss. Simulation results indicated that the “merge–split” effect present in both structures enhances heat transfer between the fluid and the wall. Furthermore, the complex channels of the TPMS structures ensure that the fluid maintains strong turbulence intensity throughout the heat exchanger. This study demonstrates that stainless steel TPMS structures can serve as excellent candidates for applications in micro gas turbines.

This work designs a Diamond-type triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) structure that exhibits excellent thermomechanical properties in a gas turbine blade trailing edge to enhance thermal performance and improve heat transfer uniformity. Since the velocity and temperature distributions are altered in the rotating trailing edge channel, the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the baseline pin fin and Diamond TPMS models are numerically investigated at the Reynolds number of 10,000 and the rotation numbers of 0.0–0.28. Compared to the baseline model, the Diamond TPMS network significantly decreases recirculation flow at the inner wall, improving heat transfer, especially at the tip and outlet regions. Although the Diamond TPMS model incurs substantial pressure losses from 191% to 234%, it yields significantly higher overall heat transfer than the pin fins by 179%. Consequently, the thermal performance increased by 93.4%. The flow fluctuations due to the rotating effects are minor in the Diamond TPMS architecture, considerably reducing the differences in heat transfer between the leading and trailing walls. The differences in the wetted-area averaged Nusselt number of the baseline and Diamond TPMS models within the studied rotation numbers are 8.5–14.4% and about 8.5%, respectively. Moreover, the Diamond TPMS structure reduces the differences in heat transfer between the root and tip regions at the outlet by up to 80% compared to the pin fins. This improvement helps protect the trailing edge from thermal failure, thereby potentially prolonging the gas turbine blade's lifetime.