Modelling and Numerical Simulation of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer through Open Celled Metal Foam

Abstract The use of open-cell metal foam in numerous technologies is increasing rapidly. Heat transfer measurements inside rectangular blocks of commercially-available aluminium foam subjected to constant heat flux at metal foam surface are presented. Cases for different pore velocities, porosities and pore densities of the foam are given. Each foam block is cooled by a confined stream of ambient air and the inlet-outlet boundaries of the computational domain were assigned. Simulations were carried out using the commercial software Fluent with a specific mass flow rate at the periodic boundaries of the domain and heat flux at the structure of the metal foam thus enabling convection. Different meshing schemes and different grid sizes were used for mesh independent to get the results with different flow velocities. Different approaches for heat transfer analysis of metal foam is considered and the most suitable approach is proposed. The temperature and the pressure drop were determined with different velocities. The heat removal rate for one unit cell was extrapolated to calculate it for the whole bed. For flow and heat transfer analysis, two fluids: air and water are used and the various results obtained are compared. Thus the variation of flow and heat transfer properties was studied with varying flow and foam parameters.