Abstract
Metal foams are a material, featuring interesting characteristics for the aeronautical and automotive fields because of their low specific weight, high thermal properties, and mechanical performances. In particular, this paper deals with thermal and fluid dynamic study of 24 open-cell aluminum EN43500 (AlSi10MnMg) metal foams produced by indirect additive manufacturing (I-AM), combining 3D printing and metal casting to obtain a controllable morphology. A study of foam behavior function of the morphological features (pores per inch (PPI), branch thickness (r), and edges morphology (smooth-regular)) was performed. The samples produced were heated by radiation and tested in an open wind circuit gallery to measure the fluid dynamic properties such as pressure drop (Δp), inertial coefficient (f), and permeability (k), in an air forced convection flow. The thermal characterization was performed evaluating both the theoretical (kth) and effective (keff) thermal conductivity of the foams. Also, the global heat transfer coefficient (HTCglobal) was evaluated with different airflow rates. Analysis of variance (ANoVA) was performed to figure out which geometrical parameters are significant during both thermal and fluid dynamic processes. The results obtained show how the controllable foam morphology can affect the involved parameters, leading to an ad hoc design for industrial applications that require high thermo-fluid-dynamical performances.
Highlights
Metal foams are a class of cellular materials with cells randomly oriented and homogeneous in size and shape
Baiocco et al [12] developed a prototype of a heat exchanger with open-cell metal foams used as an exchange surface, focusing on the evaluation of the heat transfer coefficient
The trends show a (Δpv=L ) increment with pores per inch (PPI) value, branch thickness, and velocity inlet. This result can be explained because as the PPI and r increase, the foam internal structure increase in complexity, which means that the turbulence develops easier
Summary
Metal foams are a class of cellular materials with cells randomly oriented and homogeneous in size and shape. This composite, when heated up, converts into an aluminum metal foam, due to the evolution of hydrogen gas from the blowing agent In this production process, it is not possible to exert a thorough control of the foam morphology. The papers are focused on the optimization of the steps to be followed before accomplishing five-axis laser cladding operations by taking into account the machine kinematics Anyway, limitations such as costly machinery, difficult parameter settings, and the reduced size of the components produced restrain the application of this technology. Limitations such as costly machinery, difficult parameter settings, and the reduced size of the components produced restrain the application of this technology For this kind of reticular structures, the remotion of the internal supports for structural sustain and heat dissipation could be too hard if not impossible to achieve. It was applied to evaluate if the geometrical parameters and their linear combination affect the airflow
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