Funded with $4 million from the US Department of Energy’s Integrated Research Projects program, the U-M Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences is leading a project focused on compact heat exchangers.
Funded with $4 million from the US Department of Energy’s Integrated Research Projects program, the U-M Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences is leading a project focused on compact heat exchangers, which would transfer heat from a nuclear reactor to the systems that use the heat directly or convert it to electricity. They are much smaller and thus less expensive than traditional designs.
Diffusion bonding, the process used to create compact heat exchangers, involves stacking grooved plates and pressing them together, causing the grooves to form channels. This new manufacturing technique creates a large number of small channels, which maximize the contact between the metal and the heated fluid, allowing more heat to pass through than in conventional heat exchangers.
However, high temperatures weaken the bonds between plates, limiting the heat exchangers to a lower temperature and eliminating the gains made by making them small. This project’s goal is to improve the knowledge of the bonding process to enable strong bonds at high temperatures.
“By bringing together the top experts from around the country, the research from this project will improve our ability to make lower cost and efficient heat exchangers that will decrease the overall costs associated with nuclear energy,” said Todd Allen, principal investigator of the project and the Glenn F. and Gladys H. Knoll Department Chair of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences.
