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Experimental study of forced convection through various metallic foam samples: effect of effective thermal conductivity on Nusselt correlation

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Abstract

In this study, an experimental forced convection through three metallic foam samples embedded in a plate heat exchanger is presented. The metallic foam samples are made from Copper, NiFeAlCr and Inconel with different effective thermal conductivity and closed morphological parameters. The mass velocity ranging was from 38 to 77 kg m-2 s-1. The heat transfer is represented by the local and mean heat transfer and also in terms of the Nusselt number. A new correlation was developed as a function of Reynolds and Prandtl numbers and the effective thermal conductivity ratio, which was neglected by the authors in the previous studies. This one gives a good agreement compared to the experimental results in the cases of copper and Inconnel samples, but it overestimates a bit the Nusselt number in the case of the NiFeAlCr sample.

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Abbreviations

a, b :

Correlation constants (Eq. 12) (−)

AG:

Goodness factor (−)

C p :

Heat capacity (j kg−1 °C−1)

D :

Diameter (m)

f :

Friction factor (−)

G :

Mass velocity (kg m−2 s−1)

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 °C−1)

j :

Colburn number (−)

k :

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 °C−1)

L :

Channel length (m)

m :

Mass flow rate (kg s−1)

Nu:

Nusselt number (−)

Pr:

Prandtl number (−)

Q :

Heat flux (W)

R :

Thermal conductivity ratio (−)

Re:

Reynolds number (−)

S :

Surface exchange (m2)

T :

Temperature (°C)

V :

Inlet velocity (m s−1)

x :

Position (−)

ε :

Porosity (%)

μ :

Dynamic viscosity (Pa s)

ρ :

Density (kg m−3)

e:

Effective

f:

Fluid

h:

Hydraulic

i:

Position

in:

Inlet

k:

Permeability

l:

Local

m:

Mean

out:

Outlet

p:

Pore

s:

Solid

w:

Wall

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the General Directorate for Scientific Research and Technological Development of Algeria, for which the authors are very thankful. We thank also Mr Andreas Tillmann from Alantum Europe, for the delivery of the metallic foam samples, and Mr Allali Mohamed for his assistance during experimentations

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Multiphase Transport and Porous Media (LTPMP), Faculty of Mechanical and Process Engineering (FGMGP)/USTHB, BP. 32, El Alia, Algiers, Algeria

    Ahmed Kouidri & Brahim Madani

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  1. Ahmed Kouidri
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  2. Brahim Madani
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All authors contributed to the conception of the test section, material preparation, data analysis, and writing of the paper. The data were collected by Dr. Ahmed Kouidri. All authors have approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Ahmed Kouidri.

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Kouidri, A., Madani, B. Experimental study of forced convection through various metallic foam samples: effect of effective thermal conductivity on Nusselt correlation. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 1163–1172 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11779-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-022-11779-6

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