Thermal conductivity of porous materials with Schoen’s I-WP(R) TPMS structure

The article describes the thermal properties of orthotropic materials based on Schoen’s I-WP(R) triple periodic minimal surface (TPMS). The TPMS structure resembles a matrix and consists of identical cells, strictly periodic in all directions. New unified dependencies for determining the effective thermal conductivity of materials based on Schoen’s I-WP(R) with respect to porosity, relative thickness, thermal conductivity of the original materials, and the direction of heat flow were obtained in the study. Empirical coefficients for the thermal conductivity tensor have been determined, taking into account the shape and arrangement of pores in porous materials with the Schoen’s I-WP(R) structure. By using the equations obtained during the research, it is possible to design porous materials with specified thermal conductivity values by altering the characteristic dimensions of the structure. Additionally, the investigated Schoen’s I-WP(R) minimal surface exhibits orthotropic properties, resulting in different thermal conductivity in various directions. This can be applied in certain project tasks related to non-orthogonal heat dissipation, such as in thermal power engineering, aviation or electronics. In this study, a numerical finite element method implemented in ANSYS Steady-State Thermal was used to determine the thermal properties. The geometry of Schoen’s I-WP(R) TPMS is published on the Mendeley portal.