Experimental Study of Porous Metals in Heat Exchangers

Abstract

Use of porous materials in heat exchangers makes them more efficient in a smaller form-factor. Heat exchangers based on porous materials have uses in various industries, e.g. in power engineering. The latter currently relies on steam-to-water heat exchangers that load the environment. One promising way to make heat exchangers more eco-friendly is to use porous materials. An experimental setup was made to study heat transfer in porous materials. The setup enabled the research team to find the degree of cooling the hot coolant (water) passing through a porous heat exchanger. For comparison, experiments also involved a second heat exchanger (tubular, non-porous). The paper presents the installation diagram and the experiment methodology. It also reports the processed experimental data, draws conclusions, and suggests further experimentation.