Black Inside of Armor

[FIVE[501st]]

Has anyone painted the inside of their armor black?

 

Would this make the armor cooler... or hotter?

Seems to me like it would make it cooler, but I can't reason it out in my head. haha

 

We're wearing black under suits already... so it can't be much worse.

[bluehickey]

I wouldn't do it, I'd be too afraid of getting black paint on the outside of the pieces.

[DarthChridan[TK]]

I wouldn't do it, I'd be too afraid of getting black paint on the outside of the pieces.

I think also….straight with thin plastic parts. there could divide to appear darker. However one could submit a white primer...so that black through does not gleam. That is then however afflicted with heaps a work

I have with my PT-helmet made… however that was only the lid....

But Noel, i know which you mean/think.

Edited July 25, 2010 by DarthChridan

[TrooperTim]

I too say nay. I doubt it would affect temperature. No one will see much of the inside parts of the pieces anyway so it won't add anything visually. Plus it's not screen accurate. I painted the inside of my helmet but not the armor. People CAN see the inside of you helmet... sorta, in the right angle, sometimes.

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

it would make any instance where a viewer saw the inside, and it would blend with the undersuit.

[tkrestonva[TK]]

In theory it should actually make the inside cooler.

 

I won't get into the physics of heat transfer (ok, maybe I will), but black is a heat absorber/transmitter. White - especially the shiny TK-variety white - is a reflector. Painting it black on the inside should allow the armor to absorb your body heat, transfer it (via conduction) to the white side, and radiate it away.

 

This is one of the techniques used in spacecraft thermal design. If you ever get to look at a satellite up close and/or see inside the guts, you'll notice the black boxes that contain the electronics are really that - black boxes. However, the exterior of the spacecraft is covered in a reflective material. The two are thermally connected via a heat transfer mechanism - which could be as simple as mounting the component onto a radiative surface. The heat from the electronics is transferred to the box, then via conduction or some other mechanism to the radiative surface. The other side of the radiative surface is exposed to cold space - and away goes the heat.

 

- sorry for the momentary flash of "space geek engineer", but I thought it was relevant to the question.

[ajax407[TK]]

On 7/25/2010 at 9:23 PM, tkrestonva said:

In theory it should actually make the inside cooler.

 

I won't get into the physics of heat transfer (ok, maybe I will), but black is a heat absorber/transmitter. White - especially the shiny TK-variety white - is a reflector. Painting it black on the inside should allow the armor to absorb your body heat, transfer it (via conduction) to the white side, and radiate it away.

 

This is one of the techniques used in spacecraft thermal design. If you ever get to look at a satellite up close and/or see inside the guts, you'll notice the black boxes that contain the electronics are really that - black boxes. However, the exterior of the spacecraft is covered in a reflective material. The two are thermally connected via a heat transfer mechanism - which could be as simple as mounting the component onto a radiative surface. The heat from the electronics is transferred to the box, then via conduction or some other mechanism to the radiative surface. The other side of the radiative surface is exposed to cold space - and away goes the heat.

 

- sorry for the momentary flash of "space geek engineer", but I thought it was relevant to the question.

 

 

Would the kind of paint affect results? My house is painted with an insulating paint to help keep the Florida heat out. I wonder if this would help on the inside of the armor, or would it hurt because it would keep body heat in.

[firebladejedi[TK]]

Sounds like a big waist of time, effort and money to me.

[tkrestonva[TK]]

If one is going for strict screen-used accuracy, then yes. The screen-used suits were meant to be neither practical nor reusable for any length of time. Such is the nature of film props.

 

However, most people also want some functionality. When trooping for hours in the summer heat - something that the folks who troop Star Wars Weekends in Florida or that will troop C5 and/or DragonCon are going to become quite familiar with - I would think any little bit helps. In the end, it's true that the extra cooling benefit may not outweigh the departure from screen accuracy and the time/money/effort expended - but there's no way to find that out (without doing some pretty complex computational thermal modeling & analysis) unless you actually try it and see how it works.

 

However, creating a passive thermal control system (and that is what you'd be doing by painting the inside black) adds a certain 'cool' factor (no pun intended) in actually being able to claim that your suit has it's own built-in thermal control system.

[FIVE[501st]]

In theory it should actually make the inside cooler.

 

I won't get into the physics of heat transfer (ok, maybe I will), but black is a heat absorber/transmitter. White - especially the shiny TK-variety white - is a reflector. Painting it black on the inside should allow the armor to absorb your body heat, transfer it (via conduction) to the white side, and radiate it away.

 

This is one of the techniques used in spacecraft thermal design. If you ever get to look at a satellite up close and/or see inside the guts, you'll notice the black boxes that contain the electronics are really that - black boxes. However, the exterior of the spacecraft is covered in a reflective material. The two are thermally connected via a heat transfer mechanism - which could be as simple as mounting the component onto a radiative surface. The heat from the electronics is transferred to the box, then via conduction or some other mechanism to the radiative surface. The other side of the radiative surface is exposed to cold space - and away goes the heat.

 

- sorry for the momentary flash of "space geek engineer", but I thought it was relevant to the question.

Cool... this is what I was asking.

[poisonfox]

Yes, but would the slight amount of heat transfer outweigh the added heat generated from adding to the thickness if the armor? Hmmm. . .My brain hurts too!

[FIVE[501st]]

Yeah... and I was just asking.

It is a forum after all.

[DarthChridan[TK]]

If one is going for strict screen-used accuracy, then yes. The screen-used suits were meant to be neither practical nor reusable for any length of time. Such is the nature of film props.

 

However, most people also want some functionality. When trooping for hours in the summer heat - something that the folks who troop Star Wars Weekends in Florida or that will troop C5 and/or DragonCon are going to become quite familiar with - I would think any little bit helps. In the end, it's true that the extra cooling benefit may not outweigh the departure from screen accuracy and the time/money/effort expended - but there's no way to find that out (without doing some pretty complex computational thermal modeling & analysis) unless you actually try it and see how it works.

 

However, creating a passive thermal control system (and that is what you'd be doing by painting the inside black) adds a certain 'cool' factor (no pun intended) in actually being able to claim that your suit has it's own built-in thermal control system.

That's the jumping point....

If one makes oneself many the work now and it not functioned, then one make the whole dirt to wipe off...

[Rich330[TK]]

Sounds like a big waist

 

If you have a big waist, painting the inside of your armour won't help; you'll need to shim the sides!

[puro]

Brian's scientifically right, but to get the effect you'd have to choose the material very carefully and still the desired change would be minor compared to other phenomena outside/inside the armor...