Understanding conduction panels by comparison

[hydrotoast]

To help understand the thermal interactions of conduction panel and the unique problems they solve, we compare them with existing and familiar buildings: pipes, bridges, and reservoirs. First, we review the basic features of conduction panels; second, we share a summary of our comparative results; third, we share experimental details and some interesting applications. This is a summary of my experiments in collaboration with several of the Discord members on #advanced-machine-design.

This post is concerned with the unique problems solved by conduction panels to inspire exploration of machine designs (and building arrangements) that were previously impossible; for an in-depth explanation of the dynamics (i.e. heat transfer rate), please see the excellent exploration thread by wachunga.

Conduction panel overview.

The conduction panel building features:

• the size is 3x1;
• it has 10 kg of liquid storage;
• the middle cell (B) has the special property that it exchanges heat with buildings;

Comparison summary.

Recall that heat exchange can be broken down into independent pairwise interactions: cell/cell, cell/building, and cell/entity (see the thread on heat transfer by Yothiel). Pipes, bridges, reservoirs, and conduction panels behave as buildings in this framework. However, conduction panels now introduce a new heat exchange interaction as building/building through its middle cell (in addition to cell/building interactions on all cells). For the purpose of comparison, we refer specifically to the interactions with its middle cell.

We tabulate the results of the potential heat exchange interactions below and highlight the interactions that are unique to conduction panels.

Clearly, the conduction panel uniquely exchanges heat with buildings. For liquid contents in storage, the conduction panel is unique where it exchanges heat with its stored contents, but the contents never phase change.

*Note. The contents of pipes phase change in storage only if the packet size is larger than 1 kg.

Experiments and applications.

We provide details for the experiments (and some applications) of each pairwise heat exchange interaction analyzed with conductions panels. For a broad overview of the experiments and applications:

• can a conduction panel bridge heat between hot/cold rooms?
• can a conduction panel cool a mini liquid pump in vacuum hovering over magma?
• can a conduction panel cool critters or debris?
• can a conduction panel make natural tiles from liquid glass?

Exchanges heat with cells?

Spoiler

As a building, the conduction panel exchanges heat with all cells (solid, liquid, gas) that overlap with it. In the following experiment, we  thermally connect a hot steam chamber at 200 C and a cool hydrogen chamber at 0 C using a conduction panel. The conduction panel moves heat from the steam chamber and into the hydrogen chamber like a bridge.

This behavior is shared with pipes, bridges, and reservoirs. Pipes, however, are too small (1x1), to move heat between rooms.

Exchanges heat with buildings?

Spoiler

The conduction panel exchanges heat with buildings through its middle cell. In this experiment, we cool a mini liquid pump over magma using the middle cell of a conduction panel. Note that the conduction panel is constructed from Aluminum.

This behavior is unique to conduction panels; hence, neither pipes, nor bridges, nor reservoirs can solve this type of problem.

Exchanges heat with entities?

Spoiler

Conduction panels do not exchange heat with entities (critters, duplicants, debris, plants, ...). In this experiment, we show that a cold conduction panel cools neither hatches nor copper ore debris on the floor.

This absence of behavior is shared with pipes, bridges, and reservoirs.

Exchanges heat with storage? phase changes?

Spoiler

In this experiment, there are two stages.

First, we pipe liquid glass into conduction panels, which reach freezing temperatures while interacting with a solid tile at room temperature. The conduction panel does not break and the stored contents are neither condensed nor ejected, i.e. the contents do not phase change regardless of the temperature like reservoirs.

Second, we order a dupe to deconstruct the conduction panels. Like bridges, the constructions materials are dropped at the cell with the input port; like reservoirs, the contents are dropped as a bottled liquid at the interaction cell (the middle cell for the conduction) panel. The bottled liquid glass becomes entombed in a solid bunker tile, which condenses immediately into the first available cell above (general behavior of condensing bottled liquids). This results in a stack of natural glass tiles. This method can be used to easily create stacks of natural tiles anywhere even over neutronium, e.g. entombing parts of a geyser.

The behavior of liquid contents not phase changing in storage is shared with reservoirs; however, reservoirs do not exchange with their contents while stored. Pipes exchange heat with their contents, but are susceptible to phase changes. Bridges simply do not have storage.

Discussion.

Hopefully, these experiments and results help to understand what makes the conduction panel unique and how you can use it to solve new types of problems. Some additional applications in my survival games and others I have seen include:

• cooling sweepers/loaders for hot debris in a vacuum (recall that the conduction panel does not interact with debris);
• cooling telescopes, stations, and other machines in space (no input liquid necessary);
• cooling metal ore saunas and hot tubs in vacuum;
• entombing batteries (see JRup);
• entombing parts of a geyser;
• entombing an AETN in ice;

Special notes for those interested in the dark arts.

Spoiler

The conduction panel

• exchanges heat with neither airflow tiles nor mesh tiles (maybe because they thermally behave like debris? or as zones?)
• exchanges heat with a tempshift plate only if the middle cell covers the center of the tempshift plate;
• crashes the game when constructed over a door currently (see the bug report marked as fixed);

An experiment that shows where deconstructed material and stored contents drop for anyone else that relies on deconstruction mechanics during survival machine design.

Edit. I realize after the creation of this post that this should have been posted in the base game General Discussion category instead of Spaced Out.

[hydrotoast]

After update 537329, several bugs with conduction panels have been fixed and they no longer crash when built over doors. Hence, we proceed with our experiments on conduction panels with doors. Here are the newest results.

Exchanges heat with open doors?

• conduction panel, true;
• pipes, false;
• bridges, false;
• reservoirs, false;

Spoiler

In this experiment, we build open doors of all types in vacuum adjacent to a default ice tile at -41 C. In the top row, no conduction panels are used; in the bottom row, conduction panels overlap their middle cell with the open door and overlap the ice tile with one of its end points. Observe that the conduction panel exchanges heat with all door types while open.

This behavior is unique to conduction panels; hence, neither pipes, nor bridges, nor reservoirs can solve this type of problem.

This is another unique behavior of conduction panels that is now observable, which may have applications such as:

• buffering heat injectors while open;
• draining heat injectors while open;
• designing switchable heat exchanges;

This result can be extrapolated from our previous experiments if we observe that a door switches between two thermal behaviors associated with door states:

• as solid tiles when closed;
• as a building when open;

Pneumatic doors are the exception, which behave thermally like a building when either open or closed.