Assessment of the use of Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces as heat sinks for MW/m²-heat flux class components

The removal capability of heat fluxes of several MW/m2 is crucial for disparate components spanning from the divertor of magnetic-confinement fusion machines (tokamaks, stellarators) to solar receivers in Concentrated Solar Power. The development of Additive Manufacturing allows the exploitation of new efficient cooling structures, among which the Triply Periodic Minimal Surfaces (TPMS), highly interconnected Periodic Cellular Structures obtained from the combination of trigonometric functions in the three spatial directions. TPMS can provide a significant enhancement of the heat transfer to the fluid acting as the coolant. Here we concentrate on a case study of a 10 cm × 10 cm tile, subject to a heat flux of 2.5 MW/m2 and equipped with different gyroid TPMS to enhance cooling. The tile is cooled by pressurized water at room temperature. Detailed CFD simulations of the tile are performed to evaluate the heat transfer performance of the different gyroid structures, showing that thermal results can be significantly affected by the lattice orientation and position with respect to the inlets/outlets. The evaluation of the cooling uniformity is also conducted through the use of Uniformity Indices.