3D printed continuous copper fibre reinforced composite for thermal metamaterials

Thermal metamaterials have been extensively explored and possess great potential in the field of thermal flux manipulation. The most frequently employed design method of thermal metamaterials is transformation thermodynamics, which leads to complicated structures and fabrication challenges. Here, a novel embedded printing strategy using continuous copper fibre reinforced composite (CCFRC) is proposed. A theoretical model to calculate the effective thermal conductivity of the printed composite is developed. Based on this theory, a conformal thermal cloak was designed and fabricated using 3D printed CCFRC for demonstration. The fabricated thermal cloaks were experimentally verified to have effective cloaking performance with little thermal gradient observed through the cloaking region. This study proved the great potential of continuous fibre-reinforced 3D printing technology to manufacture thermal metamaterials with complicated internal designs.