Abstract
The building energy balance is strongly influenced by the heat transmission losses through the envelope. This justifies the growing effort to search for innovative and high-performance insulating materials. The 3D printing process, also known as additive manufacturing, is already used in various industrial applications thanks to its ability to realize complex structures with high accuracy. It also represents an emerging and still poorly explored field in the world of “building physics”. The aim of this work is to present the design, realization, and analysis phases of a 3D-printed thermal insulating block. The performance analysis of the block was performed via theoretical and experimental approaches. The testing phase was conducted using a Hot Box specially built for this purpose, which allowed to have known, repeatable, and steady thermal conditions. The experimental phase, based on the infrared thermography technique and heat flow meter method, allowed a preliminary evaluation of the 3D-printed block performance. Moreover, to implement the concept of circular economy, the internal cavities of the block were filled with different recovered waste materials: polystyrene and wool. The results obtained have shown, although preliminarily, the potential of additive manufacturing in the field of insulating materials.
Highlights
To propose a new 3D-printed block to be used as thermal insulation of building walls, considering criticalities and potentials related to its realization; to analyze the thermal performance of the prototype 3D-printed block via theoretical and experimental approaches (by means of InfraRed Thermography (IRT) technique and Heat Flow Meter (HFM) method in Hot Box apparatus); to evaluate the thermal performance of the 3D-printed block by filling its air cavities with waste materials, implementing the concept of circular economy
The materials most used for Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) printing are Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and Polylactic Acid (PLA)
Based on what has been described so far, the objective of this work is twofold: (i) to design and realize the prototype of a 3D-printed block to be used as insulating material and (ii) to employ waste materials to be inserted into the air cavities of the block, in order to improve its thermal properties and implement the concept of circular economy
Summary
The building sector represents one of the main contributors to the final energy consumption, preceded only by the industrial and transport sectors. The obtained results showed that the 3D-printed macroencapsulated specimens provide the best thermal performance In this context, it is interesting to explore an emerging and high potential field such as additive manufacturing. To propose a new 3D-printed block to be used as thermal insulation of building walls, considering criticalities and potentials related to its realization; to analyze the thermal performance of the prototype 3D-printed block via theoretical and experimental approaches (by means of InfraRed Thermography (IRT) technique and Heat Flow Meter (HFM) method in Hot Box apparatus); to evaluate the thermal performance of the 3D-printed block by filling its air cavities with waste materials, implementing the concept of circular economy.
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