Speaker
Description
This presentation will provide an introduction to the Additive Manufacture for Cooling Manifold Structures (AM4CMS) programme, outlining the objectives and early‑stage activities which will be completed by the team for the next two years. This initiation phase will establish the experimental and modelling foundations needed to enable the next generation of additively manufactured CO₂ cooling manifolds for high‑performance thermal management systems.
The project addresses major knowledge gaps in the behaviour of two‑phase CO₂ within milli‑scale geometries, where complex interactions between phase change, flow stability, and geometry impose significant constraints on manifold design. To generate the foundational dataset required, a bespoke experimental rig will be developed and commissioned at Bath. Testing will then be performed using the capabilities of CERN’s two‑phase LUCASZ test facility, to analyse CO2 response at the low temperature and high pressures required. The work will proceed through a structured sequence of benchmark tests involving straight channels, 90° elbow geometries, and T‑junctions, providing high‑fidelity measurements of pressure drop, vapour‑quality evolution, liquid–vapour interface stability, and early‑stage dry-out behaviour.
These geometries represent the essential building blocks of more complex manifold architectures, and their systematic characterisation will underpin the development and validation of low‑order and computational models central to AM4CMS. The methodologies, datasets, and rig capability established during this initiation phase will form the technical basis for subsequent project stages and will directly support an invited EPSRC resubmission. This will be submitted in mid‑2026 and will focus on an expanded three‑PDRA, three‑year programme aimed at extending the experimental parameter space, incorporating manifold‑scale testing, and delivering a complete design and optimisation framework for advanced CO₂ cooling networks.