MoBi-Group

The Center for 3D Printed Heat Exchanger Research.

Advancing Monolithic Bicontinuous Core Heat Exchangers:

Explore the Research Space Request Research Access

Animated schematic of isolated hot and cold fluid pathways in a bicontinuous heat exchanger — Animated flow schematic · isolated hot and cold fluid pathways.

MoBi-Core

Additive manufacturing enables a new class of heat exchanger.

MoBi-Core heat exchangers use a monolithic bicontinuous internal core: a single continuous boundary separates two hydraulically isolated, intertwined fluid labyrinths inside one integrated heat exchanger.

MonolithicSingle-piece or highly integrated additive construction.

BicontinuousTwo continuous, intertwined fluid labyrinths.

IsolatedThe fluids remain hydraulically separated by a continuous heat-transfer boundary.

Triply periodic minimal surface architectures, including the Gyroid and Schwarz Diamond, have already demonstrated the potential of additively manufactured bicontinuous heat exchangers. But they represent only a small part of the MoBi-Core design space.

Figure 1 · Finning geometry build sequence.

The Research Space

MoBi-Core opens a massive multidimensional research space.

Geometry is only the beginning. Core architecture, material, manufacturing process, machine, surface condition, fluid properties, operating conditions, application requirements, and industry constraints all interact with the heat-exchanger design.

The research opportunity is understanding how these variables interact—and which combinations work best for a given application.

MoBi-Group coordinates the research needed to understand this design space.

Infographic mapping geometry, materials, fluids, constraints, performance targets, and manufacturing process across a multidimensional TPMS lattice research space — Figure 2 · Massive Multidimensional Research Space.

MoBi-Form

MoBi-Form makes the design space researchable.

MoBi-Form is a software tool that allows for full parametric control over MoBi-Core heat exchanger generation. MoBi-Form allows for the design of the core, separation of the fluid domains, addition of walls, ports, plenums, and finning structure to isolate the two fluid labyrinths. MoBi-Form can also surface mesh the solid walls and mesh the two fluid labyrinths.

Define the geometry

Different TPMS topologies can be applied, with control over unit cell size, orientation, phase, wall thickness, volume fraction, unit cell stretching, and blending between TPMS topologies.

MoBi-Form also allows creation of LeoCore: the addition of a secondary surface in one of the labyrinths.

MoBi-Form geometry workspace showing a parametric Gyroid core and geometry controls — Figure 3 · Geometry: parametric Gyroid core.

Separate the fluid domains

MoBi-Form separates the fluid domains created by the core geometry. Hot and cold labyrinths can be turned on and off and inspected.

MoBi-Form view of both separated fluid domains in blue and orange — Separated fluid domains

MoBi-Form view isolating the hot fluid labyrinth in orange — Hot labyrinth

MoBi-Form view isolating the cold fluid labyrinth in blue — Cold labyrinth

Figure 4 · Separated fluid domains: both labyrinths, hot labyrinth, and cold labyrinth.

Complete the heat exchanger

MoBi-Form automatically creates finning structure to selectively shunt off labyrinths for the appropriate port. MoBi-Form also allows for full control of port location on the core, variation in plenum type, and parametric control over the plenum and port geometries.

MoBi-Form preview of the assembled heat exchanger with ports and plenums — Heat exchanger assembly

Sectioned MoBi-Form heat exchanger preview revealing the core and finning structure — Sectioned heat exchanger

Figure 5 · Heat exchanger assembly and sectioned view.

Mesh and export

MoBi-Form creates surface meshes for finite element analysis, volume meshes of the fluid domains for computational fluid dynamics, and generates a 3MF file for 3D printing.

MoBi-Form surface mesh view of the Gyroid core — Figure 6 · Surface mesh.

Research Access

Research MoBi-Core with us.

MoBi-Group provides	Researchers contribute
MoBi-FormDesign, mesh, and study infrastructure	Independent ResearchNumerical and experimental investigations
Research RightsDefined non-commercial access to MoBi-Core	ResultsPerformance data and technical findings
Research OpportunitiesImportant questions ready to investigate	ValidationIndependent comparison, reproduction, and verification
Shared KnowledgeMethods, references, and findings from the growing research network	KnowledgeManufacturing, experimental, and application insight

Research tools in exchange for research contributions.

Request Research Access

Ready to investigate MoBi-Core?

Share your contact information to request MoBi-Core research access.