If you read the link I posted, you would know that carbon fiber can be used as either an thermal insulator or as a conduit for thermal transfer; depends upon the specific blend of materials.
Quite a versatile material.
A/C Guy,
Do you happen to know which one of those the carbon fiber barrel manufacturers are using? If so, how do you know? I mean, your posts are infused with such confidence.
Knowing what is theoretically possible with carbon fiber tells us nothing about what we're actually receiving in any carbon fiber wrap (CFW) barrel. Thermal conductivity coefficients, on the other hand, tell us EVERYTHING we need to know about their heat transfer properties and capabilities.
So, can you provide the thermal conductivity coefficients of the CFW material being used by the CFW barrel manufacturers? If you provide that number, I'll calculate and provide the cooling efficiency of the CFW portion of those barrels compared to plain carbon steel and or stainless steel barrels. With accuracy equal to the accuracy of those CFW thermal conductivity coefficients. It's not rocket science for me, an engineer with substantial heat transfer education and practice. You provide the thermal conductivity coefficients, and I'll calculate how efficient, or deficient, their CFW materials are.
If there are two different coefficients, one for longitudinal heat transfer and one for radial heat transfer, please provide both coefficients.
FYI, and this may be a huge shocker to you, the last time a Christiansen Arms rep provided a thermal conductivity coefficient to one of our members for their CFW media, it was 3-4 times
LESS efficient shedding heat than plain steel. That rep has probably been fired since then.
No other manufacturer has provided a heat transfer coefficient for their CFW, to the best of my knowledge. Go figure...
Which prompts the question, how do you know whether or not any of the currently manufactured CFW rifle barrels transfer heat more efficiently than solid steel barrels? You simply a believer in the company sales literature? Because unless you've conducted some defensible testing of your own, can provide independent heat transfer testing reports, or can provide documented thermal conductivity coefficients, I can't imagine how you could know anything more than what we've been fed by the manufacturers. Is your source of information the individuals being paid to promote a company product? The promotional literature prepared to pump up product sales?
So it boils down to this..., will the companies making the sensational claims of super-cooling CFW barrels share their thermal conductivity coefficients? They either have them or they don't. If they don't, then they can't possibly know how well their barrels shed heat.
I'd like to settle this heat transfer debate. Would you? How about the companies promoting sales of their CFW barrels, with claims of super-cooling benefits?
I will suggest that up until know, they're either 1) unable to provide their CFW media heat transfer coefficients because they themselves haven't paid a third party testing company/laboratory to establish them or, 2) they're unwilling to provide the data.
So far, I don't see where you've demonstrated you know anything more than I, or anyone else posting in this thread, of the heat transfer capability of ANY CFW barrel currently in production. I don't see that changing until, and unless, you explain how it is you're the one in the know. If you've got the prerequisite data, share it here with the interested forum membership. Share those heat transfer coefficients. Show me I'm wrong. I'll be waiting...
