Tools and Workflows for Modeling Flow and Heat Transfer in Lattice Heat Exchangers

I am interested in modelling the flow and heat transfer in lattice heat exchangers. What tools and workflows does Ansys have in place for this?

Ansys has recently partnered with a company called nTopology that makes a software for creating 3D models of complex lattice structures. One application is heat exchangers.

More info on nTopology heat exchangers can be found here:

https://ntopology.com/blog/2020/10/14/top-5-heat-exchanger-videos/

Below is a workflow that can be used to handle these geometries:

1. Generate Solid/Fluid bodies in nTop
2. Generate/Export STL mesh in nTop
3. Import STL mesh into Ansys Spaceclaim to define & capture the Boundary Condition surfaces
4. Import *.scdoc into Ansys Fluent (with Meshing) using the Fault-tolerant meshing (FTM) workflow
5. Describe and identify various aspects/regions of the geometry
6. Generate the Volume Mesh + Inflation Layers (option for hexahedral/polyhedral/tet mesh)
7. Set up Ansys CFD using the Named Selections/boundary faces captured in Spaceclaim

NOTE: If you already have an STL model of a lattice heat exchanger, steps 3-7 can be used

If you want to generate lattice heat exchanger geometry from scratch, Ansys SpaceClaim also has a tool for creating a 3D lattice geometry to fill a volume.

For nTopology users, additional resources on using nTop geometries with Ansys geometry, meshing and CFD tools can be found in nTopology's learning center and training catalog:

https://learn.ntopology.com/

https://support.ntopology.com/hc/en-us/articles/360062127673-How-to-export-your-design-to-Ansys-Fluent