Porous metal produced by selective laser melting with effective isotropic thermal conductivity close to the Hashin–Shtrikman bound

Additive manufacturing may be a novel method for fabricating porous materials. These materials can achieve effective performance because of their internal geometries. Metal-additive manufacturing is expected to utilize thermal conduction materials and devices. We have developed a porous metal with effective isotropic thermal conductivity by using metal-selective laser melting additive manufacturing. The internal pore structure was designed by topology optimization, which is the most effective structural optimization technique to maximize effective thermal conductivity. The designed structure was converted to a three-dimensional STL model, which is a native digital format of additive manufacturing, and assembled as a test piece. Effective thermal conductivity was measured by a steady-state method in which the effective thermal conductivity was calculated from a one-dimensional temperature gradient and the heat flux of the test pieces. The test pieces showed an effective thermal conductivity close to the Hashin–Shtrikman or Maxwell–Eucken bound, which is the theoretical limit of effective performance with an error less than 10%.