Numerical Study on Fluid Flow Behavior and Heat Transfer Performance of Porous Media Manufactured by a Space Holder Method

Abstract

The velocity field and temperature field are crucial for metal foams to be used as a heat exchanger, but they are difficult to obtain through physical experiments. In this work, the fluid flow behavior and heat transfer performance in open-cell metal foam were numerically studied. Porous 3D models with different porosities (55–75%) and pore sizes (250 μm, 550 μm, and 1000 μm) were created based on the porous structure manufactured by the Lost Carbonate Sintering method. A wide flow velocity range from 0.0001 m/s to 0.3 m/s, covering both laminar and turbulent flow regimes, is fully studied for the first time. Pressure drop, heat transfer coefficient, permeability, form drag coefficient, temperature and velocity distributions were calculated. The calculated results agree well with our previous experimental results, indicating that the model works well. The results showed that pressure drop increased with decreasing porosity and increasing pore size. Permeability increased and the form drag coefficient decreased with increasing porosity, and both increased with increasing pore size. The heat transfer coefficient increased with increasing velocity and porosity, whereas it slightly decreased with increasing pore size. The results also showed that at high velocity, only the metal foam close to the heat source contributes to heat dissipation.