Thermal development in open-cell metal foam: An experiment with constant wall heat flux

Experimental heat transfer results for a commercial open-cell aluminum foam cylinder heated at the wall by a constant heat flux and cooled by water flow, are presented. The results cover thermal-entry and fully-developed regions. Measurements include wall temperature along flow direction as well as average inlet and outlet temperatures of the water. Flow rates are in the Darcy and non-Darcy (transitional and Forchheimer) regimes. The wall temperature along the foam clearly shows two distinct behaviors related to thermally-developing and fully-developed conditions, which is confirmed by the behavior of local Nusselt number. The thermal entry length is determined and discussed in detail; it is also compared to its analytical counterpart for Darcy flow. The thermal entry region in metal foam is found to be significant and much longer than its analytically-predicted value. A method for estimating the bulk fluid temperature is envisioned for calculating the local Nusselt number. Previously undiscussed phenomenon is captured in the behavior of Nusselt number for non-Darcy regimes, which suggests periodic thermal development along the foam. The fully-developed data for the Darcy flow cases is compared to its analytical counterpart, and a correlation for the Nusselt number as a function of Reynolds number is proposed for non-Darcy flows.