Abstract
A computational fluid dynamics analysis of forced convective heat transfer has been conducted numerically on the hydrodynamic and heat transfer of airflow through vertical channel. The effects of airflow Reynolds number, metal foam porosity and thermal conductivity on the overall Nusselt number, pressure drop, maximum temperature and temperature distribution were considered. The novelty of the present study is the use of metal foams in a two-sided vertical channel and the quantification of the heat transfer enhancement compared to an empty channel for different foam material. Based on the generated results, it is observed that the heat transfer rate from the heated plate is the same for aluminium foam (porosity of 0.948) and copper foam (porosity of 0.877) against equal velocity range and heat flux conditions. Furthermore, it is noted that increasing the airflow velocity reduces the maximum temperature; however, the decrement is not linear. Results obtained from the proposed model were successfully compared with experimental data found in the literature for rectangular metal foam heat exchangers.
Highlights
There has been an increasing focus on new class of materials with low densities and novel physical, mechanical, thermal, electrical and acoustic properties
It can be seen that local pressure drop for aluminium foam is lower than copper foam
4 Conclusions In the present work, heat transfer enhancement of fully developed laminar flow through a two-sided vertical channel which is filled with aluminium and copper foams is numerically investigated
Summary
There has been an increasing focus on new class of materials with low densities and novel physical, mechanical, thermal, electrical and acoustic properties. Dukhan and Chen [6] numerically and experimentally studied heat transfer of air flowing through a block of aluminium foam, which is subjected to a constant heat flux on one side He neglected conduction within the fluid and applied the local thermal equilibrium assumption for solid and fluid phases. The proposed model first is presented and is validated by comparing the velocity, pressure drop, temperature distribution and overall Nusselt number with an experimental study for rectangular metal foam heat exchangers under constant heat flux. The incompressible, laminar, steady state fluid flow and heat transfer in channel without metal foam (Region I and region III) is described by classical Navier− Stokes equations, together with the continuity and corresponding energy equation These equations are as follows: on Lundgren experiment, the effective viscosity of saturated porous medium is equal to the viscosity of the fluid [26]. To ensure the validity of numerical analysis, the numerical code was validated against the experimental results of Kamath et al [31] for a vertical wind tunnel, containing symmetrically heated metal foams
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