Effect of Porosity and Size of Pores on Structural Performance of Porous Aluminium Materials

Abstract

Porous materials are the combination of composites of the solid phases and the pore formed within the solid phase. Material contains voids or pores are known as porous materials. Porosity, size of pores and distribution of pores in the material are important property of porous materials. Due to the significant contribution of pores and percentage porosity available inside the material provides better effect on the thermomechanical, physical and chemical properties. Porosity is considered as the most important of these parameters. Pores increases the surface area of any materials which improves the heat transfer rate in thermal use. Taking the advantage of this parameter, precautionary steps are need to be implemented to improve the utilization of waste heat which are the advantages towards the energy scenario. There are such evidences available which shows that the low grade energy can be extracted by using efficient thermal energy storage devices which directly utilized in the domestic as well as commercial purpose. Pores with varied same size, porosity and different orientation of pores inside the material also give different output in terms of thermomechanical as well as structural performance under the same input parameters. The use of porosity for the enhancement of different thermomechanical properties like thermal conductivity, heat transfer rate has attracted the current researchers. This intend to give high strength to weight ratio with better heat transfer capability and thermal conductivity. The Effect of the different orientations of pores and pore size is important for improving the heat transfer rate in porous materials. Using transient thermal analysis, comparison of solid cylindrical part and porous cylindrical part with different orientation of pore and pore size in analysis software helps to decide the best combination of parameters which improves thermal efficiency. Simulation models are prepared for same size and external dimensions for solid as well as porous material. The porous material geometry is again modelled with different pore diameters to evaluate their contribution towards the thermal properties. The connectivity of pores and the effect of pore size is analyzed for the same boundary conditions. The results are presented in terms of the effect of pore size on the thermal properties of the porous material as well as the effect of percentage porosity on these properties against the solid material are also analysed.