The air side heat transfer performance of three aluminum foam samples and three modified carbon foam samples are examined for comparison with multilouvered fins often found in compact heat exchangers. The aluminum foam samples have a bulk density of with pore sizes of 0.5, 1, and 2 mm. The modified carbon foam samples have bulk densities of , , and and machined flow passages of 3.2 mm in diameter. The samples were placed in a forced convection arrangement using a foil heater as the heat source and ambient air as the sink. A constant heat flux of is applied throughout the experiments with the mean air velocity ranging from 1 to 6 m/s as the control parameter. The steady volume-averaged momentum equation and a two-equation nonequilibrium heat transfer model are employed to extract the volumetric heat transfer coefficients. Pressure drop measurements are correlated with the Darcy–Forcheimer relation. Empirical heat transfer correlations for the aluminum and carbon foam samples are provided. Using a hypothetical heat exchanger considering only the thermal resistance between the ambient air and the outer tube wall, the air side performance for each sample is modeled based on the local heat transfer coefficients and friction factors obtained from experiments. The performance of each sample is evaluated based on a coefficient of performance (COP, defined as the ratio of the total heat removed to the electrical input of the blower), compactness factor (CF, defined as the total heat removed per unit volume), and power density (PD, defined as the total heat removed per unit mass). Results show the carbon foam samples provide significant improvement in CF but the COP and PD are considerably lower than that for comparable multilouvered fin heat exchangers.
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e-mail: klaus@ufl.edu
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December 2010
This article was originally published in
Journal of Heat Transfer
Research Papers
Performance of Aluminum and Carbon Foams for Air Side Heat Transfer Augmentation
Patrick T. Garrity,
Patrick T. Garrity
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
University of Florida
, Gainesville, FL 32611
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James F. Klausner,
James F. Klausner
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
e-mail: klaus@ufl.edu
University of Florida
, Gainesville, FL 32611
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Renwei Mei
Renwei Mei
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
University of Florida
, Gainesville, FL 32611
Search for other works by this author on:
Patrick T. Garrity
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
University of Florida
, Gainesville, FL 32611
James F. Klausner
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
University of Florida
, Gainesville, FL 32611e-mail: klaus@ufl.edu
Renwei Mei
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
University of Florida
, Gainesville, FL 32611J. Heat Transfer. Dec 2010, 132(12): 121901 (9 pages)
Published Online: September 17, 2010
Article history
Received:
March 12, 2009
Revised:
June 14, 2010
Online:
September 17, 2010
Published:
September 17, 2010
Citation
Garrity, P. T., Klausner, J. F., and Mei, R. (September 17, 2010). "Performance of Aluminum and Carbon Foams for Air Side Heat Transfer Augmentation." ASME. J. Heat Transfer. December 2010; 132(12): 121901. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4002172
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