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

Abstract

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.