Heat transfer during air flow in aluminum foams

• Published in: International journal of heat and mass transfer Vol. 53; no. 21; pp. 4976 - 4984
• Main Authors: Mancin, Simone, Zilio, Claudio, Cavallini, Alberto, Rossetto, Luisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air flow; Aluminum; Applied sciences; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Foam; Foams; Heat transfer; Heat transfer coefficients; Mass transfer; Materials and auxiliary equipments used in energy engineering; Porosity; Wall temperature; Foam; Air flow; Heat transfer; Cell structure; Test facility; Metal foam; Aluminium; Heat transfer coefficient; Experimental study
• ISSN: 0017-9310; 1879-2189
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2010.05.033

This paper presents experimental heat transfer coefficients measured during air flow heating in seven different aluminum open-cell foam samples with different number of pores per inch (PPI), porosity and foam core height under a wide range of air mass velocity. Three imposed heat fluxes are considered for each foam sample: 25.0, 32.5 and 40.0 kW m −2. The collected heat transfer data are analyzed to obtain the global heat transfer coefficient and the normalized mean wall temperature. A model from the open literature has been selected and compared with the experimental database. A new simple heat transfer model, based on the present data, for the global heat transfer coefficient and the foam-finned surface area efficiency estimations has then been developed and compared against the experimental measurements.