HeatMat: Designing internal structures for supporting hands-on design activity with heated 3D printed objects

Abstract

Recently, adopting a hands-on approach to conventional 3D fabrication has been attracting attention due to its advantages in design activity. In this context, we aim to support hands-on design activity in digital fabrication by designing internal structures for alleviating issues of external heating for shape deformation. As a first step, we simulate four simple structures with Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation to investigate effective structural parameters such as cavity's ratio, its geometry, exposure to the heat source for influencing thermal properties, and deformation in a malleable state. Through the pilot experiment, we figured out that the simulation results of the basic structures are valid, the structure is stable in a malleable state, and the parameters are effective. In the future, we will design functional structures based on the explored parameters and embed them on various topologies.