TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION, ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND EXPERIMENTAL TESTING OF PARTICLE HEAT EXCHANGERS A. PROJECT OBJECTIVES THE PROPOSED PROJECT AIMS TO INTEGRATE TOPOLOGY OPTIMIZATION (TO) AND ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING (AM) TO DEVELOP AND TEST A 100KW MODULAR PARTICLE HEAT EXCHANGER (PHX) FOR DRASTICALLY IMPROVING PERFORMANCE, MANUFACTURABILITY, COST EFFECTIVENESS, AND THERMO-MECHANICAL RELIABILITY. THE DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT IN THE PERFORMANCE METRICS IS DUE TO THE USE OF NOVEL HEAT TRANSFER GEOMETRIES THAT ARE TOPOLOGICALLY OPTIMIZED BASED ON PARTICLE FLOW PHYSICS AND THE USE OF HIGHER-TEMPERATURE SIC MATERIALS THAT ALLOWS HIGHER TEMPERATURE OPERATIONS TO INCREASE THE CONVERSION EFFICIENCY. THE BINDER JET ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING (BJAM) BASED SIC FABRICATION NOT ONLY ENABLES THE OPTIMIZED PHX DESIGN, BUT ALSO IS EXPECTED TO HELP MEET DOE’S COST OBJECTIVE.