Metallic foam with cross flow heat exchanger: A review of parameters, performance, and challenges

Abstract

The cross‐flow heat exchanger involves a tractor moving between two fluids that flow in a direction perpendicular to each other, and one of the fluids is often a liquid and the other is a gas. This type of heat exchanger has been studied in many previous studies for its importance in air conditioning applications and many industrial applications. In this type of heat exchanger, the surface area for heat transfer is very large. Therefore, many techniques have been used to improve the thermal and dynamic performance of this type of heat exchanger. In this study, previous studies that used metallic foam as one of the ways to improve the performance of heat exchangers were reviewed. The most important techniques that were used in previous studies during the process of evaluating the thermal performance of a cross‐flow heat exchanger in the presence of different types of metal foam were clarified. The use of metal foam depends on important factors, including (1) the type of material, where copper and aluminum were used in most of the previous studies, due to their availability and ease of foam formation using these materials, in addition to the good thermal properties, (2) porosity, where the porosity value of metal foam ranged between 0.85 and 0.98 in the previous studies, (3) the density of pores, most of the studies ranged between 10 and 40 PPI.

Heat Transfer and Thermal Energy Storage Enhancement by Foams and Nanoparticles

“…A more recent application of metal foams is related to the heat recovery along the automotive exhaust line to improve the performance of thermoelectric generators (TEGs) [73,74]. Heat exchangers with metal foams present interesting behaviors as underlined in [71], where a review of crossflow heat exchangers is given. A numerical model to examine the fluid dynamic and thermal performance parameters in aluminum-foam compact-heat exchangers was developed in [72].…”

A Review of Different Manufacturing Methods of Metallic Foams

“…Metallic foam is utilized in the automotive industry as a sandwich structure for weight and stiffness and as an antivibration material . Metallic foams are commonly used in acoustic absorption and sound damping applications, serving as sound insulation screens and silencers for low, mid, and high frequencies. − Due to their turbulent flow and high surface area as compared to dense metal, metallic foam is used as a heat exchanger in various applications such as radiators, fan-cooled heat sinks, dry cooling systems, compact high-performance heat exchangers, and crossflow heat exchangers. − Metallic foams have potential applications in bioimplant applications like bone scaffolds and orthopedic implants, offering improved biocompatibility and elasticity like bone. − Metallic foams offer versatile gas and fluid filtration applications, including fine filtration, effective filtration, and use as metal foam substrates. , …”

Numerical Investigation of Fuel Pulsatile Flow Through Wavy Channel

“…The wave channel has been used widely in application of heat exchangers which are able to efficiently produce secondary flow and vortexes in ducts that greatly improve the heat transfer performance [52][53][54][55][56]. Multiple methods have been used to improve heat transfer through channels, and one of these methods is the use of porous media, as in [57][58][59][60]. These types of channels are often used in heat exchanger applications [61] It can be noticed that most of the previous studies focus on the type of channel used as well as the liquid used, which is water.…”