Thermal characterization of porous graphitic foam – Convection in impinging flow

An experimental study has been undertaken to explore the convective heat transfer enhancement that can be achieved in an impinging airflow arrangement by bonding layers of graphitic foam to a heated metal substrate. The effects of foam protrusion, foam thickness and foam properties were explored in this study. The results show that surfaces with a layer of foam protruding upward with open edges had the highest convective enhancement over that of the bare substrate under the same conditions. For the protruding cases, convective enhancements of 30-70% were observed for airflows ranging from 7-11 m/s, for foam thicknesses in the range 2-10 mm. The highest enhancements were observed for foam specimens with the most open, interconnected void structure.