Various Trade-Off Scenarios in Thermo-Hydrodynamic Performance of Metal Foams Due to Variations in Their Thickness and Structural Conditions

Trilok G, N Gnanasekaran and Moghtada Mobedi
Additional contact information
Trilok G: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India
N Gnanasekaran: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, Mangalore 575025, India
Moghtada Mobedi: Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University, 3-5-1 Johoku, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi 432-8561, Japan

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 24, 1-23

Abstract: The long standing issue of increased heat transfer, always accompanied by increased pressure drop using metal foams, is addressed in the present work. Heat transfer and pressure drop, both of various magnitudes, can be observed in respect to various flow and heat transfer influencing aspects of considered metal foams. In this regard, for the first time, orderly varying pore density (characterized by visible pores per inch, i.e., PPI) and porosity (characterized by ratio of void volume to total volume) along with varied thickness are considered to comprehensively analyze variation in the trade-off scenario between flow resistance minimization and heat transfer augmentation behavior of metal foams with the help of numerical simulations and TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) which is a multi-criteria decision-making tool to address the considered multi-objective problem. A numerical domain of vertical channel is modelled with zone of metal foam porous media at the channel center by invoking LTNE and Darcy–Forchheimer models. Metal foams of four thickness ratios are considered (1, 0.75, 0.5 and 0.25), along with varied pore density (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 PPI), each at various porosity conditions of 0.8, 0.85, 0.9 and 0.95 porosity. Numerically obtained pressure and temperature field data are critically analyzed for various trade-off scenarios exhibited under the abovementioned variable conditions. A type of metal foam based on its morphological (pore density and porosity) and configurational (thickness) aspects, which can participate in a desired trade-off scenario between flow resistance and heat transfer, is illustrated.

Keywords: metal foams; thickness ratio; pore density; porosity; heat transfer; pressure drop; trade-off; TOPSIS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/24/8343/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/24/8343/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:24:p:8343-:d:699945

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().