Finite element study of heat transfer in hollow 3D printed construction bricks

The shape and arrangement of holes in bricks has a great effect on the rate of penetration heat transfer in the building. In the present study, a new structure has been proposed for building brick cells and the effect of the shape and dimensions of the cavities on its thermal performance has been studied using the finite element method and the surface response method (RSM). The input parameters include the geometric characteristics of the cells and the heat transfer performance is considered as the response variable. In order to minimize the heat transfer parameter, the RSM method and the finite element are used simultaneously. The threedimensional heat transfer equations are solved by considering the three mechanisms of conduction heat transfer, convection and radiation, and temperature distribution and heat transfer coefficient are obtained. The results show that by increasing the thickness of cells and the length of the cell and in general by increasing the perimeter of the cells, the thermal resistance of the blocks can be increased. The results show that among the studied designs, the best thermal performance is related to HB-10 sample with U-value equal to 1.95 which has improved 97% compared to brick without cavity.