Experimental measurements of air forced convection through copper foams

This paper aims at investigating the air heat transfer and fluid flow through open-cells copper foam samples with different number of pores per unit of length (PPI) with constant porosity (ε=0.93) and foam core height of 40 mm. The experimental heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop measurements were carried out during air forced convection through electrically heated copper foams; the data points are collected in a dedicated test rig. The experimental measurements permit to understand the effects of the pore density on the heat transfer and fluid flow performance of the foams. Present data relative to copper foam samples are compared against present authors experimental measurements for 40 mm high aluminum foams at the same operative test conditions. The paper presents experimental heat transfer coefficients, pressure gradients, permeability, inertia and drag coefficients; moreover, it also reports two meaningful parameters: the normalized mean wall temperature and the pumping power per area density that permit to compare different enhanced surfaces, which can be considered suitable for electronic thermal management.