Experimental and numerical determination of effective thermal conductivity of open cell FeCrAl-alloy metal foams

• Evaluation of ETC of open cell FeCrAl-alloy metal foams is presented.
• The ETC was measured with the transient plane source method at room temperature.
• Numerical predictions were obtained using the thermal lattice-Boltzmann method.
• Simplified models were also used and results were compared with measurements.
• Predictions were also obtained based on simplified modelling approach.

Heat transfer in metal foams is one of the fields of particular research interest due to the possibility of imparting tailored effective thermo-physical properties for various applications. Their Effective Thermal Conductivity (ETC) varies in a wide range and it is strongly influenced by the morphology of metal foam. This study presents the evaluation of ETC of open cell FeCrAl-alloy metal foams with different porosities and characteristic pore dimensions. The ETC was measured with the transient plane source method at room temperature. Measurements of the ETC for different metal foams were compared with each other and with literature data in order to investigate the influence of morphology of metal foam. Furthermore, measurements were also compared with numerical predictions, obtained using both detailed approach based on 3D thermal lattice-Boltzmann method as well as a simplified modelling approach, and reasonably good agreements were observed. The real foam geometry, obtained from 3D CT-scan images, was used for detailed and simplified numerical simulations.