Heat Transfer Calculation and Correction for 3D Printed Walls Incorporating Surface Geometry Effects (2025-09)¶

As critical components of the building envelope, the thermal performance of 3D printed walls significantly influences indoor thermal environments and energy efficiency. However, their inherent non-uniform surface geometries affect thermal behaviour and present unique analytical challenges. This study systematically investigates the impact of layered surface morphology on the heat transfer characteristics of 3D printed walls through integrated experimental testing and numerical simulations. Experimental results reveal that the combined effect of surface geometries and the thermally conductive silica gel significantly modifies thermal resistances, yielding discrepancies exceeding 11% from theoretical values calculated using thermal conductivity. Numerical simulations incorporating surface geometries exhibit markedly improved accuracy, reducing average relative errors by approximately 50% in temperature predictions and approximately one-third in heat flux estimations. The validated numerical model provides quantitative insights into how geometric variations influence key thermal performance metrics, including surface-averaged temperature, heat flux magnitude, and total heat transfer. Building on these findings, the study introduces correction factors to accurately predict heat transfer in 3D printed walls with layered surface geometries. These advances provide a practical methodology for performance-driven material selection and thermal optimisation of 3D printed wall components, bridging the gap between structural properties and architectural thermal design objectives.