Geometric Mean of Fin Efficiency and Effectiveness: A Parameter to Determine Optimum Length of Open-Cell Metal Foam Used as Extended Heat Transfer Surface

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tisha Dixit ◽  
Indranil Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Geometric Mean ◽  
Fluid Velocity ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Heat Sinks ◽  
High Porosity ◽  
Open Cell ◽  
Fin Efficiency

High porosity open-cell metal foams have captured the interest of thermal industry due to their high surface area density, low weight, and ability to create tortuous mixing of fluid. In this work, application of metal foams as heat sinks has been explored. The foam has been represented as a simple cubic structure and heat transfer from a heated base has been treated analogous to that of solid fins. Based on this model, three performance parameters namely, foam efficiency, overall foam efficiency, and foam effectiveness have been evaluated for metal foam heat sinks. Parametric studies with varying foam length, porosity, pore density, material, and fluid velocity have been conducted. It has been observed that geometric mean of foam efficiency and foam effectiveness can be a useful parameter to exactly determine the optimum foam length. Additionally, the variation in temperature profile of different foams heated from one end has been determined experimentally by cooling these with atmospheric air. The experimental results have been presented for open-cell metal foams (10 and 30 PPI) made of copper/aluminium/Fe–Ni–Cr alloy with porosity in the range of 0.908–0.964.

scholarly journals A Review of Thermo-Hydraulic Performance of Metal Foam and its Application as Heat Sinks for Electronics Cooling

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongtong Li ◽  
Liang Gong ◽  
Minghai Xu ◽  
Yogendra Joshi
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Flow Boiling ◽  
Electronics Cooling ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Hydraulic Performance ◽  
Heat Sinks ◽  
Research Progress ◽  
High Porosity

Abstract High porosity metal foams offer large surface area per unit volume and have been considered as effective candidates for convection heat transfer enhancement, with applications as heat sinks in electronics cooling. In this paper, the research progress in thermo-hydraulic performance characterization of metal foams and their application as heat sinks for electronics cooling are reviewed. We focus on natural convection, forced convection, flow boiling, and solid/liquid phase change using phase change materials (PCMs). Under these heat transfer conditions, the effects of various parameters influencing the performance of metal foam heat sink are discussed. It is concluded that metal foams demonstrate promising capability for heat transfer augmentation, but some key issues still need to be investigated regarding the fundamental mechanisms of heat transfer to enable the development of more efficient and compact heat sinks.

Thermal Dispersion in Metal Foams

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa B. Hoberg ◽  
Kenshiro Muramatsu ◽  
Erica M. Cherry ◽  
John K. Eaton
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Molecular Diffusion ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Heated Surface ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Thermal Engineering ◽  
Transfer Model ◽  
Thermal Dispersion ◽  
Transverse Mixing

Open-cell metal foams are of interest for a variety of thermal engineering applications because of their high surface-to-volume ratio and high convective heat transfer coefficients relative to conventional fins. The tortuous flow path through the foam promotes rapid transverse mixing, a fact that is important in heat exchanger applications. Transverse mixing acts to spread heat away from a heated surface, bringing cooler fluid to the foam elements that are in direct contact with the surface. Heat is also spread by conduction in the foam ligaments. The present work addresses fully-coupled thermal dispersion in a metal foam. Dispersion of the thermal wake of a line source was measured. A conjugate heat transfer model was developed which showed good agreement with the data. The validated model was used to examine the complementary effects of the mechanical dispersion, molecular diffusion in the gas, and conduction in the solid.

Jet Impingement Heat Transfer Enhancement by Packing High-Porosity Thin Metal Foams Between Jet Exit Plane and Target Surface

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Srivatsan Madhavan ◽  
Prashant Singh ◽  
Srinath Ekkad
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Transfer Enhancement ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Jet Impingement ◽  
Target Surface ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Thin Metal ◽  
High Porosity ◽  
Pumping Power ◽  
Transfer Enhancement

High-porosity metal foams are known for providing high heat transfer rates, as they provide a significant increase in wetted surface area as well as highly tortuous flow paths resulting in enhanced mixing. Further, jet impingement offers high convective cooling, particularly at the jet footprint areas on the target surface due to flow stagnation. In this study, high-porosity thin metal foams were subjected to array jet impingement, for a special crossflow scheme. High porosity (92.65%), high pore density (40 pores per inch (ppi)), and thin foams (3 mm) have been used. In order to reduce the pumping power requirements imposed by full metal foam design, two striped metal foam configurations were also investigated. For that, the jets were arranged in 3 × 6 array (x/dj = 3.42, y/dj = 2), such that the crossflow is dominantly sideways. Steady-state heat transfer experiments have been conducted for varying jet-to-target plate distance z/dj = 0.75, 2, and 4 for Reynolds numbers ranging from 3000 to 12,000. The baseline case was jet impingement onto a smooth target surface. Enhancement in heat transfer due to impingement onto thin metal foams has been evaluated against the pumping power penalty. For the case of z/dj = 0.75 with the base surface fully covered with metal foam, an average heat transfer enhancement of 2.42 times was observed for a concomitant pressure drop penalty of 1.67 times over the flow range tested.

Microtomography-Based Analysis of Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer Through Open Cell Metal Foams

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Oliviero ◽  
S. Cunsolo ◽  
W. M. Harris ◽  
M. Iasiello ◽  
W. K. S. Chiu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Thermal Characteristics ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Surface Evolver ◽  
Periodic Cell ◽  
Numerical Predictions

Their light weight, open porosity, high surface area per unit volume and thermal characteristics make metal foams a promising material for many industrial applications involving fluid flow and heat transfer. Pressure drop and heat transfer of porous media have inspired a number of experimental and numerical studies. Many models have been proposed in the literature that correlate the pressure gradient and the heat transfer coefficient with the mean cell size and porosity. However, large differences exist among results predicted by different models. Most studies are based on idealized periodic cell structures. In this study, the true 3-D micro-structure of the metal foam is obtained by employing x-ray computed microtomography (XCT). For comparison, ideal Kelvin foam structures are developed in the free-to-use software “Surface Evolver” surface energy minimization program. Pressure drop and heat transfer are then investigated using the CFD Module of COMSOL® Multiphysics code. A comparison between the numerical predictions from the real and ideal geometries is carried out.

Numerical Study of Heat Conduction of High Porosity Open-Cell Metal Foam/Paraffin Composite at Pore Scale

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanpeng Yao ◽  
Huiying Wu ◽  
Zhenyu Liu
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Conduction ◽  
Pore Size ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Foam Cell ◽  
High Porosity ◽  
Pore Scale ◽  
Thermal Equilibrium State ◽  
Foam Structure ◽  
Open Cell

In this paper, a numerical model employing 3D foam structure represented by Weaire-Phelan foam cell is developed to study the steady heat conduction of high porosity open-cell metal foam/paraffin composite at the pore-scale level. Two conduction problems are considered in the cubic representative computation unit of the composite material: one with constant temperature difference between opposite sides of the cubic unit (that can be used to determine the effective thermal conductivity (ETC)) and the second with constant heat flux at the interface between metal foam and paraffin (that can be used to determine the interstitial conduction heat transfer coefficient (ICHTC)). The effects of foam pore structure parameters (pore size and porosity) on heat conduction are investigated for the above two problems. Results show that for the first conduction problem, the effect of foam structure on heat conduction (i.e. the ETC) is related to porosity rather than pore size. The essential reason is due to the thermal equilibrium state between metal foam and paraffin indicated by the negligible interstitial heat transfer. While for the second conduction problem with inherent thermal non-equilibrium effect, it shows that both porosity and pore size significantly influence the interstitial heat conduction (i.e. the ICHTC). Furthermore, the present ETC and ICHTC data are compared to the results in the published literature. It shows that our ETC data agree well with the reported experimental results, and are more accurate than the numerical predications based on body-centered-cubic foam cell in literature. And our ICHTC data are in qualitative agreement with the published numerical results, but the present results are based on a more realistic foam structure.

scholarly journals Numerical Simulation on Enhanced Heat Transfer of Metal Foam Based on LBM

2021 ◽  
Vol 2085 (1) ◽  
pp. 012028
Author(s):  
Zhongli Li ◽  
Peng Hu
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Numerical Simulation ◽  
Nusselt Number ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Metal Structure ◽  
Heat Transfer Process ◽  
Solid Particles ◽  
Distribution Model ◽  
High Porosity ◽  
Open Cell

Abstract Open cell foam metal has the characteristics of high porosity and large specific surface area. And it has developed rapidly in the related research of heat exchanger. Aiming at the convective heat transfer process of open cell metal structure with high porosity, a two-dimensional stochastic distribution model is established. Numerical simulation is carried out using the single-relaxation-time dual-distribution-function lattice-Boltzmann-method (BGK-DDF-LBM). For the non-ideal solid particles with unequal diameter and incomplete circular structure, the flow field is analyzed by taking the porosity of 0.964 as an example, and the dimensionless permeability is calculated. When the porosity is constant, the Nusselt number of the porous section increases with the increases of Reynolds number in the range of 10 to 100, which shows heat transfer performance. In addition, the Nusselt number of the porous section increases with the increase of porosity in the range of porosity from 0.900 to 0.980.

Experimental and numerical investigation on the effective thermal conductivity of stochastic structure

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 861-871
Author(s):  
Milad Saljooghi ◽  
Younes Bakhshan ◽  
Saeid Niazi ◽  
Jamshid Khorshidi
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Effective Thermal Conductivity ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Open Cell ◽  
Geometrical Properties ◽  
Copper Aluminum ◽  
Thermo Physical Properties ◽  
Modern Technologies

The Conception of thermo-physical properties of porous materials is a challenging task for scientists to conquer. The open cell metal foam increases heat transfer while energy dissipation, dimension and density of them which are constraints for modern technologies significantly reduce. In the present study, the open cell metal foams with four kinds of structures have been investigated numerically and experimentally and the effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of them have been extracted with using different base fluids such as water, air and paraffin. Also, various metals have been considered copper, aluminum, nickel and silver. Finally, a validated correlation for calculation of ETC of open cell metal foams has been developed which is function of thermal conductivity of fluid and metal, porosity and geometrical properties of pore that is applicable for all open cell metal foam approximately. The results show, good agreements between the modeling results and experimental data.

Buoyancy-Induced Convection in Metal Foam and Finned Metal Foam Heat Sinks©

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bhattacharya ◽  
Roop L. Mahajan
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Porous Medium ◽  
Heat Transfer Rate ◽  
Transfer Rate ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Heat Sinks ◽  
Normal Metal ◽  
Optimum Number

Abstract In this paper, we present our recent experimental results on buoyancy induced convection in metal foams of different pore densities (corresponding to 5, 10, 20 and 40 pores per inch) and porosities (0.89–0.96). The results show that compared to a hot surface facing up, the heat transfer coefficients in these heat sinks are 5 to 6 times higher. However, when compared to commercially available heat sinks of similar dimensions, the enhancement is found to be marginal. The experimental results also show that for a given pore size, the heat transfer rate increases with porosity suggesting the dominant role played by conduction in enhancing heat transfer. On the other hand, if the porosity is held constant, the heat transfer rate is found to be lower at higher pore densities. This can be attributed to the higher permeability with the larger pores, which allows higher entrainment of air through the porous medium. An empirical correlation, developed for the estimation of Nusselt number in terms of Rayleigh and Darcy numbers, is found to be in good agreement with the experimental data with a maximum error of 10%. We also report our results on novel finned metal foam heat sinks© in natural convection. Experiments were conducted on aluminum foams of 90% porosity with 5 and 20 PPI (pores per inch) with one, two, and four aluminum fins inserted in the foam. All these heat sinks were fabricated in-house. The results show that the finned metal foam heat sinks© are superior in thermal performance compared to the normal metal foam and conventional finned heat sinks. The heat transfer increases with increase in the number of fins. However, the relative enhancement is found to decrease with each additional fin. The indication is that there exists an optimum number of fins beyond which the enhancement in heat transfer due to increased surface area is offset by the retarding effect of overlapping thermal boundary layers. Similar to normal metal foams, the 5 PPI samples are found to give higher values of the heat transfer coefficient compared to the 20 PPI samples due to higher permeability of the porous medium. Future work is planned to arrive at the optimal heat sink configuration for even larger enhancement in heat transfer.

Numerical Analysis of Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop in Metal Foams for Different Morphological Models

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcello Iasiello ◽  
Salvatore Cunsolo ◽  
Maria Oliviero ◽  
William M. Harris ◽  
Nicola Bianco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Pressure Drop ◽  
Metal Foam ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Metal Foams ◽  
The Real ◽  
Numerical Predictions ◽  
The Ideal

Because of their light weight, open porosity, high surface area per unit volume, and thermal characteristics, metal foams are a promising material for many industrial applications involving fluid flow and heat transfer. The pressure drop and heat transfer in porous media have inspired a number of experimental and numerical studies, and many models have been proposed in the literature that correlate the pressure gradient and the heat transfer coefficient with the mean cell size and porosity. However, large differences exist among results predicted by different models, and most studies are based on idealized periodic cell structures. In this study, the true three-dimensional microstructure of the metal foam is obtained by employing x-ray computed microtomography (XCT). This is the “real” structure. For comparison, ideal Kelvin foam structures are developed in the free-to-use software “surface evolver” surface energy minimization program. These are “ideal” structures. Pressure drop and heat transfer are then investigated in each structure using the CFD module of COMSOL® Multiphysics code. A comparison between the numerical predictions from the real and ideal geometries is carried out. The predictions showed that heat transfer characteristics are very close for low values of Reynolds number, but larger Reynolds numbers create larger differences between the results of the ideal and real structures. Conversely, the differences in pressure drop at any Reynolds number are nearly 100%. Results from the models are then validated by comparing them with experimental results taken from the literature. The validation suggests that the ideal structure poorly predicts the heat transfer and pressure drops.

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