Forced Convection Analysis in a Horizontal Pipe in the Presence of Aluminium Metal Foam—A Numerical Study

Abstract

Numerical exploration of forced convective heat transfer through the aluminium metallic foam filled in a horizontal pipe is done expending a commercially existing software ANSYS FLUENT 15.0. The motive of the ongoing numerical examination is to investigate the effect of fully filled metal foam in a horizontal pipe for different flow regimes. 10 PPI metal foam having 0.85 porosity is filled 60% along the length of pipe in the flow direction. The Darcy-extended Forchheimer (DEF) flow and local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) models are considered at the metal foam region to envisage fluid flow and augment in heat transfer. The numerical methodology is validated by comparing the results with available experimental data. The results of pressure loss, variation of wall temperature and Nusselt number are reported and discussed.