Research on Heat Transfer through a Double-Walled Heat Shield of a Firefighting Robot

Burning forests, petrochemical installations and material warehouses generate very large fields and thermal gradients, which means human intervention to extinguish the fire is greatly limited. For that reason, the use of robots is recommended, but because of high temperature, they have to be equipped with protective thermal shields. This article is an analytical, numerical, and experimental study on how a double-wall, stainless steel heat shield influenced the thermal gradients acting on a firefighting robot. Following the analytical analysis at a maximum temperature of 350 °C, it was possible to identify the parameters that must be measured to be correlated with those from finite element analysis (FEM) analysis. Experimental tests showed a decrease in temperature behind the shield due to the stainless steel and the double-walled. The main conclusions and contributions of this paper consist of the realization of a finite difference model with FEM that takes into account conduction, convection, and radiation. It also highlights the benefits of using a multilayer shield.