Effective Thermal Conductivity of Structured Porous Medium: Numerical Study

Abstract

The paper presents a numerical study of thermal conductivity of porous structures using the Ansys software package. Unlike the well-known porous materials used in construction and engineering, it is proposed to use porous materials with an ordered law of cavity placement. The porous material proposed is formed by dividing the volume into cubes of equal size with a spherical cavity placed in the center of each cube. The numerical calculation of an effective thermal conductivity coefficient of a porous medium is performed using the Ansys Mechanical computer modeling tool. The values obtained are compared with solutions based on classical methods for determining the effective thermal conductivity of porous materials. A dependency graph of effective thermal conductivity in a porous material based on pores geometric parameters (distance between cavities, diameter of cavities), as well as an analytical dependence to obtain the effective thermal conductivity value is presented. Additive technologies available today provide producing the proposed porous material with an ordered law of cavity placement with any accuracy and any pore geometric parameters. Such materials open up wide opportunities for engineers, especially in the field of thermal power engineering, because it has predictable thermophysical and mechanical properties.