investigating the effect of porosity Percentage on heat transfer in plastic injection molds created by selective laser melting

It is not possible to fabricate the complex geometry of coherent cooling channels with conventional machining methods, so channels can be created in the mold using additive manufacturing processes such as selective laser melting. Parts created by selective laser melting always have porosity, and the amount of porosity depends on process parameters. On the other hand, the ability to make porous materials with a selective laser melting process has made these materials with features such as lower density and better heat transfer in the aerospace industry, automobile, medical uses and heat exchangers to be the attention of researchers and according to Porosity Percentage, in addition to directly affecting mechanical properties, also affects heat transfer. In this research, the effect of porosity on heat transfer in the mold was investigated. First, the model and mold were designed, in order to investigate the effect of porosity, four simulation models with volume porosity percentage of 0, 10, 20 and 30% were performed and analyzed in the software. The analysis of the results shows that the increase in the percentage of porosity in the mold causes a faster increase in temperature in the mold, also with the increase in the percentage of porosity in the mold, the speed of temperature decrease in the mold increases. And the cooling of the part happens faster. Examining the results of the maximum thermal gradient of the non-porous material compared to the material with 30% porosity shows a 21% increase in the thermal gradient in the porous material