Experimental study of buoyancy-driven flow in open-cell aluminium foam heat sinks

Buoyancy driven convection in open-cell metal foam using the volume averaging theory

“…That is why in this work a 2D macroscopic model for buoyancy driven convection in open-cell metal foam is developed. The accurateness of the model is verified by comparing numerical predictions with in-house measurements on heat sinks with different foam heights [9]. The influence of thermal radiation is investigated and discussed.…”

“…De Schampheleire et al [9] listed all important parameters for this case: foam material, foam height, geometrical characteristics of the foam, the length-to-width ratio of the heat sink substrate, inclination angle under which the heat sink is positioned, temperature difference between the environment and the substrate, radiative heat transfer contribution, contact resistance between substrate and foam (dependent on the bonding method), construction details of the test rig and the dimensions of the enclosure surrounding the heat sink. Furthermore, these parameters tend to interact with each other, making the analysis of buoyancy driven heat transfer a complex task.…”

“…The effect on the Nusselt number was only 6%. Finally, De Schampheleire et al [9] analysed the influence of different foam heights, pore densities and bonding technologies for a heat sink with a length-to-width ratio of 10. The foam height was varied between 12 and 40 mm, the pore density was 10 and 20 PPI.…”

“…The experimental setup and measurements used in this work is described in De Schampheleire et al [9], see also Fig. 2.…”

Comparison of metal foam heat exchangers to a finned heat exchanger for low Reynolds number applications

“…These properties, in combination with the high thermal conductivity of the metal (e.g. aluminum or copper), make these foams a promising structure for heat transfer applications [6][7][8][9][10][11].…”