Heat transfer due to turbulent flow water in metal foam: Limited experimental results and difficulties

Open-cell metal foams continue to receive considerable attention as excellent cores for heat transfer enhancement and heat exchange designs. These foams have high conductivities and substantial surface area density. Turbulent heat transfer in metal foam has received very little study. In this paper, preliminary experimental convection heat transfer results for turbulent flow of water in a tube brazed to commercial aluminum foam are presented. The tube had a length of 30.50 cm in the flow direction, an inside diameter of 5.08 cm and wall thickness 0.63 cm; it was subjected to constant heat flux at the wall. The porosity of the foam was 87.6 %. Measurements included wall temperature along flow direction as well as average inlet and outlet temperatures of the water. More importantly, the issues and difficulties in the experimental work are highlighted, and they will be used in designing a more durable set-up for future experiments.