Compact Hybrid Liquid/Air Heat Exchanger

High conductivity (Hi-K) Carbon foam and Carbon-Carbon (C-C) composites are light-weight and offers the highest specific thermal conductivity (conductivity/ density) among engineering materials. Carbon foam and C-C have also been identified as ideal core materials for advanced high temperature heat exchangers achieving up to 50% weight saving. Under this program, we propose to design, fabricate and test hybrid full-size heat exchangers using carbon based material as the core materials for advanced Air-Liquid heat exchanger applications, such as hot fuel/ram air and hot air/fuel or polyalpaolefin (PAO) heat sink. Both fin-fin and fin-foam design configurations will be considered using either metal or carbon-carbon parting sheets. Technical issues, such as joining of materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion and leakage & sealing of C-C composites will be fully addressed under this proposed program. Heat exchanger core and manifold will be integrated with support structures. The heat exchanger will be fully tested, both performance and structurally in heat exchanger test facility.