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Transport in Porous Media, April 2014, Volume 102, Issue 3, pp 403-426.
Xiao Hu Yang, Jia Xi Bai, Hong Bin Yan, Jiu Jie Kuang, Tian Jian Lu, Tongbeum Kim.
School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, People’s Republic of China and
State Key Laboratory for Strength and Vibration of Mechanical Structures, School of Aerospace, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, People’s Republic of China and
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Wits, 2050, South Africa.
Abstract
We present an analytical model for the effective thermal conductivity of fluid-saturated metal foams with open cells. For high porosity ranges (ε≥0.9) , the model is derived based on a realistic representative unit cell (a tetrakaidecahedron with cuboid node) under the assumption of parallel heat conduction along the highly tortuous cell ligaments and the saturating fluid. Good agreement with existing experimental data as well as the present measurements of open-cell aluminum foams saturated with either air or water validates the present model. More realistic and reasonable node size is estimated and compared with other model predictions. Ligament shape and pore size (PPI) are found to have little influence upon the effective thermal conductivity of the bulk porous media. Further, the influence of the fluid phase as well as the interactive heat conduction between solid and fluid phase on the overall effective thermal conductivity is quantified.
