Numerical Simulation of Heat Transfer in Metal Foams

Priyatham Gangapatnaml, Renju Kurian*, S. P. Venkateshan**

Heat Transfer and Thermal Power Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian
Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600056, India

Abstract
This paper reports a numerical study of forced convection heat transfer in high
porosity aluminum foams. Numerical modeling is done considering both local thermal equilibrium and non local thermal equilibrium conditions in ANSYS-FLUENT.
The results of the numerical model were validated with experimental results, where
air was forced through aluminum foams in a vertical duct at different heat fluxes
and velocities. It is observed that while the LTE model highly under predicts the
heat transfer in these foams, LTNE model predicts the Nusselt number accurately.
The simulation of heat transfer in foams is further extended to find the effect of
.6\c '- foam thickness on heat transfer in metal foams. The numerical results indicate that
6.\\1:111e-though larger foam thickness resulted in higher heat transfer coefficient, this effect
weakens with thickness and is negligible in thick foams.
Keywords:
metal foam, vertical channel, porous media, porosity, LTE, LTNE, foam thickness

*Research scholar
**Professor
Email addresses: renjukurianQgmail.com (Renju Kurian), 01775@retiree.iitm.ac. in ( S.
P. Venkateshan)
'Research Associate

Preprint submitted to International Journal of Thermal Sciences

August 14, 2016

Nomenclature
A
surface area of the aluminum plate, m2

a,b

coefficients of fit. in Eq. 17

form drag coefficient, m-1

Cr

Specific heat at constant pressure, J/kgey

heat transfer coefficient, W/m26{

permeability of-mesh:assembly, m2

key

effective thermal conductivity of porous medium defined in Eq. 16, W/iii.K

kt.

thermal conductivity of air, W/m.K

ks

thermal conductivity of solid medium, W/m.K

\ VA )<

V.) m2 K

length of aluminum foam assembly in flow direcn, m

Nusselt number based on

raulic ditu4er, h/X

PPI

number of pores per inch of metal foam

AP

pressure drop across test section, Pa

heat input, W

Qt heat loss through the insulation, W

ReD

Reynolds number based on

surface temperature of aluminum plate, C

raulic meter,

1
lu

AT excess temperature of air over ambient defined in Eq. 20, C

inlet velocity of air, m/s

Greek Symbols
dynamic viscosity of air, kg/m-s
kinematic viscosity of air, m2/s
p density of air, kg/m3
volumetric porosity ofw,el-r-arss,12frly cc\t,
Subscripts
eff effective
f

air

loss heat loss through the insulation

s

solid

cc ambient conditions

vr (\f

CvQ.NA

cA..e

cw

cittN.

Vvati NpeRAN
5

1. Introduction
Forced and natural convective heat transfer in porous media has been studied extensively for several decades for their superior heat transfer applications in electronic
cooling, geothermal systems and solar collectors. Elease-referfli-for a-eompreiten-j
siv reviewOra this-subjeet) Studies in the past were focused on packed beds and
sintered materials for their direct application as naturally occurring porous media.
In the past few years heat transfer in metal foams has been studied extensively as

h
cev&vve-

metal foams are reported to have superior thermal performance with a low hydraulic
resistance.
Heat transfer in porous medium is generally modeled in two ways. The local
thermal equilibrium LTE ondition assumes identical solid and fluid temperature
\\
inside an REV nd a single energy equation is used to model heat transfer. The
Me9
LTNE odel relaxes this assumption and utilizes a two equation model. Hunt and

1\ Tien 2] studied the effect of thermal dispersion on forced convection in metal foams
by considering the simplifying assumption of local thermal equilibrium. Chick et
al(31 btained an analytical solution for a fully developed forced convection in a
gap between two concentric cylinders by considering LTE model. Poulikakos and
Renken[4] carried out numerical investigation of forced .convection in a channel with
fluid saturated porous medium using a single energy equation. Vafai and Kim[5]
analyzed forced convection in a channel with porous medium, bounded by two parallel plates. A single equation with the effective thermal conductivity of the porous
medium was utilized to analyze the heat transfer. Exact solutions were obtained
for velocity and temperature distributions. Hung et al[6] analyzed the thermal perrreformance of porous-micro channel heat sinks in 3D under the assumption. of-leettither-med-eetialthrilun..,
4

Qod 4\rern.9

Many researchers have investigated the conditions under which the LTE assumption is valid. Amiri and Vafai[7] carried out numerical simulations of forced convective incompressible flow through porous media based on a two equation model. They
presented the validity of LTE assumption in the form of error maps. Whitaker and

Quintard[8] investigated the constraints to be satisfied itr-ertier-t-ita44144 LTE model t..)440kzov,

.). P_R- \tea (kcSce_
is-A414-and-valielecteethese constraints with numerical experiments for transient
l
heat conduction in two-phase systems. Lee and Vafai[9] investigated the validity of
AY\

LTE model by obtaining exact solution for fluid and solid temperatures based on

008y

N.

a two equation model. It is shown that the heat transfer characteristics in porous
f

media can be classified into three regimes i.e. fluid conduction, solid conduction and
internal heat exchange between the fluid and solid phases. Kim et al[10] obtained
analytical solutions for temperature distributions in a micro channel heat sink using
both one-equation and two-equation Imodels for heat transfer. They concluded that
either decrease in Darcy number or increase in effective thermal conductivity the Ruid
temperature approaches the sold temperature, in which case the LTE assumption is
- yve__
ohs si:hAV.r.
valid. 've--1/4-1-ccn e-.I recent yealy few researchers haye utilized the LTNE equation exclusively to
model the heat transfer in metal foams and have found that they offer an accurate
modeling of heat transfer in metal foams. Phanikumar and Mahajar11111 presented
numerical and experimental results of buoyancy induced flows in high
porosity metal
foams considering the LTNE model and concluded that it provides a suP 'or description of heat transfer in metal foams. Calmidi and Mahajanjl2j conducted

convection heat transfer experiments in high porosity metal foams (0.89-0.97) of var
\
ing porosity and pore densities with air and water as fluid medium
a horizontal
channel. The energy transport is modeled withait invoking the assum\ ion,
Ggeeal.
therpfiftl-eetttiiibrit= More research on LTNEstudies can be found in referencesf20]
Itt.
5
O

to [22].
Pere-tiensity7pDrosity, p
et c at trancf cr n

port-artt-feam-charpl-feains Some researchers have in-

vestigated the effect of foam thickness on heat transfer in metal foams. Salas and
Waas[13] conducted forced convection experiments in aluminum metal foams with
air as the working fluid. Four foams of thickness in the range of 6.4mm to 25.44mm
were utilized for this purpose. They concluded that larger foam thickness resulted
in increased heat transfer but this effect diminishes for thicker foams. Mancin et
al([14],[15]) conducted heat transfer experiments in a horizontal channel with aluminum foams of 20 and 40mm thickness.
had no significant effect on heat transfer.

he results indicate that foam thickness

I -3.73 lodoeur
ric...k\N

The review of above literature suggests that even though there have been many k
of\ CNN ocrA-
studies that consider LTE and LTNE model se Gately to model heat transferAthere
curt
are very few studies in metal foams that considcr both models te-Fhodel-heattr-anefer
and validate them with experimental/Ftesults. Further the effect of foam thickness
on heat transfer has not been adequately investigated. The objective of this study
is to simulate the heat transfer hi me al

considering both LTE and LTNE

&ys
conditions arM validate the results with experiments which have been conducted

one- es) cArAexctoi s-

under the same conditions. Numerical simulations have been further extended to
find the effect of foam thickness on heat transfer in metal foams.
2. Numerical Simulation
2.1. Physical model and mathe'natical formulatio
carAtub&-kce(v11
Oke___
A s4chematic of the domain is shown i
ong with the orientation of axes.
A
.Ilse-ir.
Air is assumed to enter the metal foam at a uniform velocity as determined

4,42-

experimentally. A known amount of heat flux is given to the heated wall. The
temperature gradients are zero for both solid and fluid phases at the adiabatic wall.
condition

et:
X

34A

U 7-= Uin ) T1 Tin;

(1)

aT,
= u, =0
ax ax

(2)

Adiabatic wall:
qw

Heated wall:

8T1 = _ k aTs
q qw

kf ax

(3)

ax

Outlet:

aTf _ aTs _ 0
ay ay

(4)

Governing equation4)C
t4The continuity equation assumes a steady ancLarnTicompressible fluid flaw through
cI .
Cb-Athe metal foam. Standard momentum and energy equations as used in [12] are utiIone ~, ti e_mt
A
lized in tilis-nuffier-ieal study. ,
eiq t7. kkne_

Continuity equation:IThe continuy equation assumes a steady, incompressible

CM 46.

fluid flow through the porous medium given by eq. 5

V. V = 0
(5)
he ,
Momentum equation:(The steady state momentum equation in the volume averaged
form is given by seq,-6-

EL(v.v)v
= -v ( P) Lv2 (u) 02

K -

I Ittl

(6)

The third and fourth term in the right hand side aticoV2rfor the pressure drop due
to viscous friction and form drag respectively.
7

- r
s\

seircr-L'I
MP

\v&e.c.

Energy equations: LTE Model: T

in a sing e

assumption results
is

ering the effective thermal conductivity of medium/ ct

given by eqr--7
aT
lficp1e7,i + (pcp)fVVT = keV 2T

(7)

The effective thermal conductivity in this study is considered as the geometric mean
of the conductivities of two phases given by Nields mod as mentioned in next caper
section.

Model: The energy equations of fluid and solid considering the as-

Egft

ta

As2

sumption of local thermal non equilibrium are given by equatiefts- Sand 9.

VeFluid energy equation:
(0)(pcp) f 87:f
- = V. (Okf VTA

at

h,

T1)

(8)

y--Solid energy equation:

aTs
(1 cb)(pcp)e-y = V.((1 CksVT,) + Its f.a,.(Tf Ts)
2.2. Numerical simultion in ANSYS-FLUENT

(9)

FltAenc-

Finite Volume based software ANSYS FLUENT 14.5 is used to simulate the fluid

16\e

flow and heat transfer in porous media. This software is having inbuilt module for
A
porous media simulations. A 2D geometry of the aluminum foam/ was created using
the design modeler in FLUENT. The geometry in this case is a two dimensional
rectangular duct having dimensions 150mm x 10mm. The dinction of fluid flows
ZN
Skin the Y direction along 0 length of 150mm. The gP_G41444", is filled with par-etts teke_
A.c.A
AcAr-IN
medlafil of the same dimensions .
n
e in the geometry to discretize the doGrid Independent Study]M
iNeVIngt cs ro
main into large number of cells or control volumes. The geometry is divided into
a large number of cells based on the size of each cell, which can be specified in the

sizing option in FLUENT. A mesh independent study is carried out to select the
optimum number of cells to save the computational effort without compromising on
the accuracy. The element size is chosen when the average heated wall temperature
does not vary more than 0.1 C eetit-tmele: Table 2 presents the results ofitgrid sensitivity study carried out. -F-ig- 4 shows the variation of average surface temperature
of heated wall with the number of cells in the grid independent study. In LTNE
ecemodeling, FLUENT duplicates the mesh for solid state and se-the number of cells in b

e__

\.stve LTNE modeling is double the number of cells in LTE modeling.

______Y----ivIathematical Formulation in FLUENT:
Fs

Momentum Equations:

SoSve e_

Porous media in FLUENT are modeled by the addition of a momentum6urcD

term to the standard fluid flow equations. The porous medium in FLUENT is nothing
n the governing equations. FLUENT calculates the

but an added momentu

superficial phase or mixture velocities based on the volumetric flow rate in a porous
region. The source term is composed of two parts: a viscous loss term and an inertial
loss term. Szir 10 is the algebric momentum equation used in FLUENT at each node.
3

(10)
j=1
j=i
s\g\-'3)\(
For a simple case of a homogenous medium, the equation is .2.8 below. in-ecr-1-1f
=

Si = -(

+ Cfplvivi)

(11)

\\OA
a - = . : - eq ation anye the exper-

This equation is the same as the H

imentally determined permeability and form drag coefficien s are er4o-reeelfi- 0110U-A-dents- here.
At- Energy equations in ANSYS-FLUENT:
9

.:(.0(

LTNE Modelling: Energy equations in the LTNE modeling are considered without the assumption of local thermal equilibrium. FLUENT uses a dual cell approach
v....e-where a solid zone of same meshing is created which interacts with fluid with regard
A

to heat transfer. The conservation equations for energy are solved separately for the
fluid and solid zones. Energy oiiservation equations for fluid and solid respectively
gwvA w. 1,5 ,
as used in FLUENT are R44,-12 an
of
\s Oc- l 3 (-1,
f
Fluid:
(11)PlEf) +V .(V(p f E + P)) = .[0.k fV'Tf

at

_E hi Ji+fr.V)]+ Sh f +lis fAs f (Ts -Tf )

(12)

4- Solid:
5((1 CpsEs) v.[(i_o)ks vz] +shf + hs f A.9 f (7' f - Ts)

(13)

at

Interfacial heat transfer coefficient is an important parameter that is required, to

'017ex- At.)(-4\ beff
ions. The fluid to solid heat
obtain a closure in solid and fluid state energy e

's

6A,

-Fzck "

transfer coefficient was dcpivcd from Nakao et a .Ger-relation- given by .4ift. 14.
eitifuctifi`r

1
kf
haf = (2 + 1.1pr( -)(Red) .6 )
3
dp

cp-t.vx

(14)

rove%

Interfacial area density and heat transfer coefficient need to be entered manually
cl
in FLUENT to solve these equations. In FLUENT, interfacial,Yrea density is defined
A

as the area of solid in contact with the fluid per unit volume. It zi..teA9--calculated
considering the porosity, pore diameter and fiber diameter.
tAiL Q.)\'A\N er

-<--LTE Modeling

$ WOAket.0

The LTE energy equation used by FLUENT is given by

t5-.
O T WC:VA()

10

42V Jr

=
1 ) ) V'.[Iceff VT

5((cbpfEf + (1 cb)ps Es) v.(v(pfE1+

at

E hat: + r.V)]+Sf h
(

(15)
where the effective thermal conductivity this case is calculated by the Nields
tvx-Ae..v
L"4--o
model of effective thermal conductivity given by q.16
(16)

ke =

It should be noted that FLUENT uses an effective thermal conductivity considering the arithmetic average of fluid and solid conductivity. The solid conductivity is
adjusted to get the effective thermal conductivity as given by Nields model. Earera. The thermal properties of

v
Aim_
a
4krid-areeqa..s-Lc&entered at mean tovapettatistfeitinlet and exit temperaturest.
LA41_
\F-Assumptions in FLUENT modeling:
1) The metal foam is assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic.
"

oS

2) The flow in this study is assumed to be in steady state and incompressible.

3) The working fluid is air with constant thermo-physical properties (except density evaluated using Boussinesq Approximation) calculated at the mean temperature
of inlet and outlet.
in the laminar regime with
4) Flow and heat transfer simulatiots are performed
ry eitfor\
Reynolds numbers in the range of 1113.1903. The 444etivebehind this assumption
is that air flow is very much ordered through the pores.
5) Thermal dispersion is assumed to be negligible [12] and is not considered in
the simulation.
`fie \\ . dvo Learns-r_
co-e_

V0.1-0. 1.:X\

. 11 .ct 0 TY\
co-e_ c.)Noc.,:*9_1
c_ s- Q
co-e-

\to
&VCI CA
tvk

-11

S
4344-

ck

s-e &io

3. Experimental setup and procedure

c:71 cxy e.s
Figs 2 and 3 show the photographs of ex erinvntal setup and schematic of
col\ s s
o (-the test section respectively. The set-up Asi a test section mounted on a vertical
wind tunnel. The wind tunnel has an axial fan at the bottom to blow air. The
arrangement resembles a vertical chalmelg size 150mm x250mmx 10mm filled wit
VINI1.1/4 e_
`
metal foamy A bell mouth at the entry minimize' the entry losses. Five K-type
A
thermocouples (32-AWG) are fixed on each side of theAluminum plate using copper
cement. The thermocouples have a maximum measurement error of 0.1 C and are
calibrated using a constant temperature bath (Make: Julabo, Model: FP50). The
thermocouples are connected to a PC based data acquisition system (Make: Agilent,
Model: 34 970A). A DC power source (Make: Aplab),1which has a range of 30-600V
and 0-1.5 A)supplies power input to the heater.
A thermal anemometer (make TESTO, model: 425) is utilized to measure the
temperature and velocity at the inlet section. The velocity is measured at ten different positions at the same level and the average value is taken as the inlet velocity.
The air velocity is varied by varying the speed of the axial flow fan mounted below
the wind tunnel. A digital differential pressure transducer (Make: TESTO, Model:
512) with 0.1 Pa resolution, connected to pressure taps located

ct_ LIM+

g the test sample is used to measure the pressure drop across the Lecher}. The 4E4- 1e.ekk-eir
sectiee is given different heat fluxes by varying the voltage levels in the DC power
source.
b

The heat

: Z . . .4:

loss across the cork sheet is also accounted for by measuring the temperature drop
across the sheet using K-type thermocouplesvoir, four on each side.
The experiments are conducted for three power inputs to the heater (20, 40 and

12

60 W) and inlet flow velocities ranging from 0 to 1.52 m/s.

a

.7c,\._
ceAsa \A_ U
etek-c'ael
Vapkokik eE

Table 1 lists the characteristics of the metal foams

used in the study. The volumetric porosity of the foams is determined, by measuring
the dry mass of the metal foam and dividing it by density to get the solid volume.
P

The pore diameter

and fibre diameter are important to calculate the interfacial heat transfer coefficient
cciNvekeV,e_
and specific surface area. The characterization of the metal foams is elaborated in
Kamath et al[18].
4.

Results and discussion

4.1. Hydrodynamic experiments

Hydrodynamic experiments are essential in ,this study to determine the permeyu 1c- val. *AN\ e-tex

ability and form dwg coefficient which are entefed-Faanuaily

,
in FLUENT. Pressure
rt.ez.h,\ .V6 are\

cts.srcbn

NA\

drop measurements are done at different velocities and 1.14e=1,.are plotted to fit a secn
,&e(
Fq-:- A
and
polynomial as ven beer 17. The equation is compared with HazenDttfiltpixDarcyAequationV, to obtain'
the permeability and form drag coefficient/.
S

5 pests the va t
of pressure drop wit), fluid inlet velocity.
fc
The permeability and form drag coefficient of the metal foam used in this study. a1 -A b~

determined emper-inientwitate 3.34E-07 m2 and 232.27 m-1 respectively.

AP

= aU +bU2

AP ,a
= li + pCU 2
L
K

13

(17)

(18)

q() te

4.2. Heat transfer experiments

The average surface temperature of the aluminum plate is used to determine
19)

the heat transfer coefficient. The heat transfer coefficient is determined based on
temperature excess i.e. the difference between the wall temperature and the ambient
temperature.lay----1-9
h = Q Qioss
2AAT
where the average wall temperature AT is defined by Eq. 20

(19)

1 n
AT =
(71) - Too
(20)
n i=i
vi Where Q is the heat input to the heater obtained as the product of voltage and curk!gss
rent supplied by the DC power supply. Qiess is the heat loss through cork estimated
by a simple conduction heat transfer analysis along the layers of cork insulation.aft114ywee&_of_the.Ivottlen_bex.
- --- d
te-heat-trattsfer-aZthe factor '2' is to take into account the heat transfer that takes
place from both sides of the aluminum plate. The Reynolds number and the Nusselt
number are defined by Eq. 21 and 22 respectivelyo
hDh
Ne f f

(21)

Re = U Dh

(22)

Nur)

Considering the results of numeric simulations, the average heated wall temperature is used to compute the heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number. These
are validated with the experimental results.

6 presents the Nusselt number vari-

ation with Reynolds number for LTE Modeling, LTNE Modeling and experiments
at velocities ranging from 9,02444-As-

for the case of 10mm thicknes' 1..e.1,t-f

to 1.52m/s

ezovj ImszkVs.N/ k.A,V

14

It is observed that LTE model under predicts the Nusselt Number by 30-50%.
Z-litr deviation increases with Reynolds number. At the highest Reynolds number
of 325, the experimental Nusselt number is 21.65, whereas the LTE model predicts
F"sswv
a Nusselt Number of 12.25, lathiel#48- a deviation of 43%. Fig 7 presents the heat
transfer coefficient variation with Reynolds for LTE Modeling, LTNE modeling and
experimental results. As is the case with Nusselt number the LTE model under
predicts the heat transfer coefficient by 30-50%. The heat transfer coefficient as
obtained experimentally for the case of 1.52m/s is 56.95 W/m2 K whereas the LTE`--)
model predicts a heat transfer coefficient of 32.22 W/m2 K. The underlying assump\S
tion in LTE modeling that the temperatures of fluid au solid inside a REV are same
c.
a txpe.mmty4,-,A vgAstes
is the main reason for the deviation. In cases where the thermal conductivities eof

to\-,,c3r\

fluid and solid differ substantially this assumption stands invalid. In this case the
thermal conductivity of aluminum i 164 W mK while the thermal conductivity of
trq Moth
air at 30 C is 0.264 'W/mK which is GODO-tiiaes less compared to the solid thermal
conductivity. As the velocity increases the solid and fluid temperature difference inside the REV further increases and is reflected in the increasing deviation at higher
\rtt__
velocities. Re.A.ce
'Eta LTNE Model which does not assume the conditions of thermal equilibrium
between the two phases and consideVwo different energy equations for both solid
and fluid state is
a

--

v t\nex ct.vmx. As a

Figtv43 presents the Nusselt Number variation with

blt_

Reynolds number in the velocity range of 0.02 m/s to 1.52 m/s,t...)118 11/41Ttu
The LNE model predicts accurately the Nusselt number within 2-15% of the

jixperimental value. The laracteristics of usselt number v iation with Re olds

number where the heat transfer creases with

olds number is xactly depicte

by th THE IVIA511ingIt is also observed that the Nusselt number varies very
15

clwc1R9

little with different fluxes and the same is being predicted by the LTNE Model.

Fi 9 presents the hea ransfer coefficient v iation with Reyn

experime al results and L

Modelling.The

number for the

t transfer coefficie when t

i et air veloci is 1.' m/s at 20V heat flux is 57 W/m2K and the LTNE model
predi s a value of .95

hc Fig 10 sompares the fluid temperature contours as

predicted by the LTNE model at three different velocities. As the velocity increases,
the heat transfer coefficient between the fluid and solid matrices increases resulting
in increased heat transfer and decreased fluid temperature for the same heat flux.
The heat transfer coefficient between the phases calculated considering the Wakao
.etOcorrelation gives us an accurate prediction of heat transfer between the two
.5

phases at pore level. Fig, 11 presents the graph of local Nusselt number between the
two phases and the pore Reynolds number in the range of the current study. It can
be clearly seen that they,ariation of average Nusselt number with Reynolds number
%\c'S`b
8 has the same characteristics as variation of local Nusselt number
presented i
with pore eynolds number suggesting that. the heat transfer coefficient term in the
two equation model is the most important term contributing to the heat transfer.
An important observation in this study is that, at higher Reynolds number the
simulation under predicts the experimental results by 10-15%. The same
observation was noted by Calmidi and IVIahajan[12]. This deviation is attributed to
turbulence and this phenomenon is not considered in the simulation in FLUENT.
Further the effect of thermal dispersion is also not considered in this study. The
ova. be
effect of thermal dispersion .ifrassumed to be negligible as studied by Calmidi and
Mahajan[12].
r\ CIn order to validate both our experimental and LTNE numerical simulation re-

sults both these results were compared with the experimental results of Kamath
et al. [18]. They conducted experiments using high porosity aluminum and copper

\t,e)

,cc-seC;

fi6c*6foams to investigate the effect of foam thickness on heat transfer. They used foams
i

of thickness of 10, 20 and 30mm thickness. The results of 10mm thickness aluminum
foam are used for comparison. It is to be noted that Nusselt number and Reynolds
imp.re)1\trix
Number f9r.pi1a used in Kamath et al[18] differ by a factor of 2, as they consider
Vob
total thickness i.e.thickness of two foams (It times the foam thickness). he rc_sults
vA
Cc t-cme 04.46 mss:
in Kamath[18] et al. are reduced by a factor of 2.camOre and valicrae the current
resultsiFig. 12 presents the comparison of Nusselt number from experimental study,
numerical simulation and Kamath et al.[18].Both experimental and simulated results are close to the Nusselt number values as reported by kamath and-follow-the
The Nusselt number as
te-st ':reported by them for a Reynolds, number of 952 is 24.5, while pip LTNE modeling
de...vkati on of frx
A
predicts a Nusselt number of 21, whieli-is. 8% deviatieft. This deviation may be due
to the difference in the porosity, permeability, pore diameter and fiber diameter of
the foams used in the respective studies.
4.3. Effect of foam thickness on heat transfer
y,cot-

sl

-0

63.4

.4602A

The numerical simulation were extended to feta the effect of foam thickness on
eVheat transfer. Foams
the same characteristics

but with a thickness of 5, 20 and 3 m.

. A constant inlet
St:: C
wee
temperature of Sk and a heat tux of 40W are considered for the simulation. The
\c,5"146CiVNI
jatev=tr
eSegres- s..
the same
m os
c-(6)(\- _
ePewr._ p...e.v..,4 skt.A...k4kiev..s,
tlitra.ness-aluaaaopaR4-te. Fig. 13 presents the variation of heat transfer coefficient

5,6'r

with inlet velocity for four different foam thickness i.e. im, 10/nm, linm and
201 nm.

It is observed that the heat transfer coefficient increases with increase in

foam thickness. However, it was noticed that this effect reduces with thickness. An
increase of foam thickness from 5mm to 10mm with an air inlet velocity of 1.5 m/s
17

(ant

resulted in a heat transfer coefficient increment by 42 %. However. increasing the

thickness form 10mm to 20mm and 20mm to 30mm resulted in a 4iere 12% and
..5"-- .F% increase in heat transfer coefficient respectively.
,r,1) \11 ackl

<--A similar observation was reported by Saras[13],in-his-stktelr They investigated

A
experimentally the effect of fowl' thickness on convective heat transfer coefficient
and modeled the heat transfer using a finite element approach. Iiin results indicate 1
that larger foam thickness resulted in higher heat transfer coefficient but this effect
diminishes for thicker foams.
Considc1
- n the above data points a correlation for Nusselt number in terms of be\\.0,,JA \oet103 aspect rati an Reynolds number is developed cv s.S
i
&
0" 0
0.669

NT li. = .66%Re(162
1i

(
L

(23)

H
CA

This correlation is valid for 134.1410444gi-ty aluminum metal foams in the following
range of

: "

---

pox cksc

'

/L-

cY

11.71 < Re < 1903

.t

PcNY.-Ai\.\)--c-1
(24\

5 < L I < 30

co:Nt
along with the simulated Nusselt. numThe correlateg Nusselt number is plotted
\5y
6.2.../So.dar.
ber in Fi 4. geeisl-agra49414 is found between the correlated data and the simulated data.

5. Uncertainty analysis Et 1\ et'l

o0.1

SWZ

Ihk
0tie S

a..

c(Y\'\-e

(Iv

Cot\

The uncertainties in the measured primary physical quantities are shown in TaS.LA-t\ &'t cuni)
cAl Zth N1)
-u1ble 3. The propagation of error due to the uncertainties in the measured primary
18
SA"

one

coo-cD cry \ \neer\

lifv,1riv21'ca9 40.6

0. sc-ect\ox

ae..vJove.4. LuW\

CCIN. \IVO an
(2,VMX 0C-

91vekcAQ

cts

physical quantities into derived quantities are calculated using the procedure def-scribed in Venkateshan[19].
=

asV
axi ) xi j)

(26)

Following this procedure, the uncertainty in the estimation of heat transfer coefficient
is 2.2%, hydraulic diameter is 1.7%, effective thermal conductivity is 7%, and the
resulting uncertainty in the Nusselt number is estimated as 7.5%.
6. Conclusions
5
Numerical simulationAof forced convection heat transfe' ip aluminum metal foams
vve-,.."%yaSCarried out-coansider.ing-laeth LTE and LTNE ass
ens. The results of nun
merical study were validated with heat transfer experiments conducted on aluminum
foams in a vertical channel under the same conditions. The LTE modeling which utilizes the effective thermal conductivity of the medium

under

predicts the heat transfer in these metal foams. The results of the LTNE modeling tkie...%-e._
`s"v\""
" vc\
avii-ift good
agreement with the experimental results. The numerical simulations
. . .s-VA. tft
find the effect of foam thickness on
were extended to f -

heat transfer. The results indicate that though heat transfer increases with thickness
btc..Vv.esi eS ktiAer
this effect becomes negligilAeatrt,W,eiterfoamns.Acorrelation for Nusselt number has
been developed, u Cvna the-A LTIVE rc-e241-e[1]M. Kaviany 199 Principles of Heat Transfer in Porous Media, Springer-Verlag,
qret,z-, cOt3C-c
SIrese. %se& Ike
New York. tct0.\ Cio
[2]M. Hunt, C. Tien, Effects of thermal dispersion on forced convection in fibrous
media, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 31(2) (1988) 301 - 309.
19

[3] Chikh S., Boumedien A., Bouhadef K.

Analytical solution of non-Darcian

forced convection in an annular duct partially filled with a porous medium,

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 1995, 38(9): 15431551.
[4] D. Poulikakos, K. Renken, Forced convection in a channel filled with porous
medium, including the effects of flow inertia, variable porosity, and Brinkman
friction, ASME J.Heat Transfer 109 (1987) 880-888
[5] K. Vafai, S.J. Kim, Forced convection in a channel filled with a porous medium:
an exact solution, ASME J. Heat Transfer 111 (1989) 1103-1106
[6] T.C., Huang Y.X., Yan W.M, Thermal performance analysis of porous-micro
channel heat sinks with different configuration designs, International Journal of
Heat and Mass Transfer, 2013, 66: 235-43.
[7] A. Amiri, K. Vafai, Analysis of dispersion effects and non-thermal equilibrium,
non-Darcian, variable porosity, incompressible flow through porous media, hit.
J. Heat Mass Transfer 37 (1994) 939-954
[8] M. Quintard, S. Whitaker, Local thermal equilibrium for transient heat conduction: theory and comparison with numerical experiments, Int. J. Heat Mass
Transfer 38 (1995) 2779-2796.
[9] D.Y. Lee, K. Vafai, Analytical characterization and conceptual assessment of
solid and fluid temperature differentials in porous media, Int. J. Heat Mass
Transfer 42 (1999) 423-435
[10]S.J. Kim, D. Kim, D.Y. Lee, on the local thermal equilibrium in micro channel
heat sinks, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 43 (2000) 1735-1748
ON\
20