Study of forced convection heat transfer characteristics in modified structures derived from the Weaire-Phelan foam geometry

• Published in: International communications in heat and mass transfer Vol. 159; p. 108134
• Main Authors: Zhang, Zhaoda, Yan, Guanghan, Liu, Yu, Zhang, Xiaokai, Sun, Mingrui, Li, Shuai, Song, Yongchen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2024
• Subjects: Additive manufacturing; Forced convection heat transfer; Overall heat transfer performance; Structure optimization; Weaire-Phelan cell; Overall heat transfer performance; Weaire-Phelan cell; Additive manufacturing; Structure optimization; Forced convection heat transfer
• ISSN: 0735-1933
• DOI: 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2024.108134

Weaire-Phelan (thereafter W-P) structures, as a foam-liked structures, were widely used in the field of flow and heat transfer. The effect of various methods for removing connecting struts on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of W-P structures was investigated, while maintaining constant porosity for all structures. Furthermore, the influence of porosity on the optimal strut removal scheme for W-P structures was examined. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed to analyse the flow and heat transfer characteristics of these structures. Additionally, four representative structures were created through 3D printing technology to experimentally validate the results. The effects of geometric structure parameters on the flow resistance and heat transfer characteristics of different structures were also analysed in depth. The findings indicate that all the proposed methods for removing connecting struts result in a reduction in pressure drop of up to 20.2 %. However, the most overall heat transfer performance (OHTP) was achieved when only the symmetry direction connecting struts were removed. Furthermore, as porosity decreases, the improvement in OHTP with the strut removal scheme becomes more significant compared to the original W-P. This study provides ideas for the optimisation of complex strut structures.