Air flow in aluminum foam: heat transfer and pressure drops measurements

Metal foams are cellular structure materials that present open cells, randomly oriented and mostly homogeneous in size and shape. Cellular structure materials, and particularly open-cell metal foams, have been proposed as possible substitutes for traditional finned surfaces in electronics cooling applications. This article presents the heat transfer and pressure drops measurements obtained during air flow through an aluminum foam, which has 40 pores per inch with 0.63 mm pore diameter. The specimen has been inserted in a new open-circuit type wind channel with a rectangular cross-section that has recently been built at the Department of Fisica Tecnica of the University of Padova. The experimental heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops have been collected by varying the air flow rate supplied by the screw compressor that provides a variable volumetric air flow ranging between 0–90 m3h-1 at a constant gauge pressure of 7 bar. The specific heat flux has been simulated by powering with a 25-kWm-2 copper heater attached at the bottom of the aluminum foam base plate. The experimental results are reported in terms of heat transfer coefficients, mean normalized wall temperatures, and pressure drops.