Enhanced regenerative cooling performance with conformal TPMS channels

Efficient thermal management remains a critical challenge in aerospace propulsion systems, particularly in the thrust chambers of liquid rocket engines. Traditional regenerative cooling channels often fail to fully leverage intricate geometries, limiting their performance. Leveraging advanced 3D printing, this study proposes two TPMS-based conformal design strategies for regenerative cooling channels: topological conformal strategies, including gradient and linearity, as well as modular conformal strategies employing geometric unit division. Using computational fluid dynamics simulations validated by experimental results, we systematically assess the flow and heat transfer characteristics, cooling uniformity, and overall efficacy of the proposed designs. Results reveal that optimizing TPMS cell features by boolean operations is essential for enhancing channel performance, and the Diamond structure exhibiting minimal sensitivity to this operation. Among the designs, the modular conformal channel Sp-A, based on a spherical geometry, achieves superior performance. The Sp-A channel improved overall cooling performance by 46 %, with a 69 % enhancement in circumferential temperature uniformity and a 7 % reduction in specific pressure drop compared to traditional grooved channels. These findings highlight the significant potential of TPMS-based conformal cooling channels in high-performance regenerative cooling systems, and introduce a novel design paradigm for thermal management in complex aerospace geometries.