A performance analysis of porous graphite foam heat exchangers in vehicles

Aluminum foams are favorable in modern thermal engineering applications because of the high thermal conductivity and the large specific surface area. The present study aims to investigate an application of porous aluminum foam by using the local thermal equilibrium (LTE) and local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) heat transfer models. Three-dimensional simulations of laminar flow (porous foam zone), turbulent flow (open zone) and heat transfer are performed by a computational fluid dynamics approach. In addition, the Forchheimer extended Darcy's law is employed to evaluate the fluid characteristics. By comparing and analyzing the average and local Nusselt numbers, it is found that the LTNE and LTE models can reach the same Nusselt numbers inside the aluminum foam when the air velocity is high, meaning that the aluminum foam is in a thermal equilibrium state. Besides, a high interfacial heat transfer coefficient is required for the aluminum foam to reach a thermal equilibrium state as the height of the aluminum foam is reduced. This study suggests that the LTE model can be applied to predict the thermal performance at high fluid velocities or for the case with a large height.

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“…The validation of the LTE model has been presented in [27]. Only the LTNE model will be validated here.…”

Section: Validation Of Simulation Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison and Analysis of Heat Transfer in Aluminum Foam Using Local Thermal Equilibrium or Nonequilibrium Model

Lin

Xie

Yuan

et al. 2015

Heat Transfer Engineering

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“…Lin et al [6] proposed a new compact graphite foam heat exchanger for vehicle cooling application that allows to match the increasing cooling power and space limitation in vehicles. Their simulation results show that the wavy corrugated foam presents high thermal performance and low pressure drop.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introductory Chapter: Advanced Features and Applications of Heat Exchangers–An Outline

Murshed¹,

Lopes²

2017

Heat Exchangers - Advanced Features and Applications

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“…Their investigation revealed the significant influence of configuration on the pressure drop through the graphite foam. In another study conducted by Lin et al, several kinds of graphite foam fin configurations such as pin‐finned, baffled, corrugated, and wavy‐corrugated were evaluated from thermal performance and pressure drop points of view. Rashidi et al examined the influence of porous materials on heat transfer and the pressure drop in a solar heat exchanger with a porous media and integrated convection–radiation heat transfer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical study of enhancing vehicle radiator performance using different porous fin configurations and materials

Baou

Afsharpanah

Delavar

2019

Heat Trans. Asian Res.

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A vehicle radiator is used for cooling down the hot working fluid with airflow passing over its flow passages and fins.The proper design of the radiator is very important due to space and weight limitations in automobiles. In this study, a numerical investigation has been conducted on the improvements, which can be obtained by implementing different porous fins in the radiator channels.The effects of different porous fin configurations with the same porous media volume on the heat transfer rate and pressure drop were investigated. The coefficient of performance values were presented for evaluating the overall performance. The investigated geometries included horizontal, vertical, corrugated, and wavy-corrugated configurations. The results showed that the corrugated pattern had the best thermal performance among these geometries while the horizontal configuration presented the lowest pressure loss, even though the best overall performance belonged to wavy-corrugated configuration. After selecting this configuration, the influence of different porous materials on the radiator performance was studied. Finally, the radiator with the optimum porous media configuration and material was compared to a conventional radiator. It was found that implementing this porous media in the radiator channels improves its overall thermal performance factor up to 237%. K E Y W O R D Sheat exchanger, heat transfer enhancement, porous media, pressure drop, thermal performance, vehicle radiator

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A performance analysis of porous graphite foam heat exchangers in vehicles

Cited by 34 publications

References 20 publications

Comparison and Analysis of Heat Transfer in Aluminum Foam Using Local Thermal Equilibrium or Nonequilibrium Model

Comparison and Analysis of Heat Transfer in Aluminum Foam Using Local Thermal Equilibrium or Nonequilibrium Model

Introductory Chapter: Advanced Features and Applications of Heat Exchangers–An Outline

Numerical study of enhancing vehicle radiator performance using different porous fin configurations and materials

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