Quick estimate of effective thermal conductivity for fluid-saturated metal frame and prismatic cellular structures

Abstract

Metal frame and prismatic cellular structures are promising candidates for compact heat exchangers and heat sinks with capability of carrying both mechanical and thermal loads. Useful formulas and corresponding laws were analytically derived for quickly estimating the individual effective thermal conductivity components of these structures. Such effective thermal conductivity estimates were made for metal foam structures, cubic cell structures, octet-truss structures, tetrakaidecahedron structures and various architectures of prismatic cellular honeycomb. The estimated values are found to agree well with existing experimental data and those obtained from exhaustive numerical computations. These formulas and laws enable us to design the structures with directionally controlled thermal conductivity, which is quite advantageous for maintaining an optimum temperature range and a uniform temperature distribution in thermal engineering applications such as in electric vehicles, batteries and HVAC industries.