Testing How Infill Affects the Conductivity of 3D Printed Heat Shields

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective is to determine how the density of an object (in this case, a 3D Printed "heat shield") affects the rate at which heat travels through it. Methods/Materials 24 3D printed heat shields (designed in Solidworks, made with printrbot simple metal 3D printer), 3 of each infill/density ranging from 0-70% solid, increasing in 10% increments. Arduino and Thermocouple for measurement of heat. Heat gun to provide consistent temperature levels. Computer with serial monitor to observe results. Timed how long it took for the back of each shield to reach 85 degrees fahrenheit, starting at room temperature, when the front of each was subjected to heat of 400F. Results My test allowed me to conclude that the less dense an object is, the more effective its performance as a heat shield. Not only did the 0% and 10% solid shields last longer, the temperature of the back of these shields rose steadily and slowly, whereas shields with higher densities survived for significantly smaller periods of time, and temperatures spiked quickly near the end. Conclusions/Discussion I devised an experiment that allowed me to test how density/infill affects a heat shield's effectiveness, using 3D printing to manufacture otherwise identical discs that were subsequently subjected to high temperatures. With repeated trials, I was able to determine that lower density shields were significantly more effective than their denser counterparts.

Awards (1)

• Fourth Place

Competition history

• CSEF 2017 Physics & Astronomy · Entry S1801

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

• All Physics and Astronomy projects
• CSEF Physics and Astronomy projects
• Every CSEF 2017 project
• CSEF Fourth Place winners