Hydrodynamic Characterization of Nickel Metal Foam, Part 2: Effects of Pore Structure and Permeability

Abstract

In this article, the structural characterization of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) nickel metal foam is presented. Scanning electron microscope and post image processing were used to carefully analyze the surface of the nickel metal foams. Data on foam unit cell, ligament thickness, projected pore diameter, and averaged porosity was obtained. Unit cell and projected pore diameters of CVD nickel metal foam possess Gaussian-like distribution. Characteristics of pore structure and its effect on permeability in Darcian flow regime were analyzed. The relations between the permeability, pore size, and porosity are presented. Present and previous data are compared with these relations. Measurement results indicate that the permeability or the viscous conductivity of the CVD processed metal foam is affected not only by the pore size, and porosity but also by the ligament structure.