Thickness effect on pool boiling heat transfer of trapezoid-shaped copper foam fins

The pool boiling heat transfer of trapezoid-shaped copper-foam fins has been investigated at atmospheric pressure in saturated deionized water. The pore densities of copper foams are 100 PPI and 130 PPI, respectively, while the porosity remains a fixed value of 0.95. The foam fins are single-directional and trapezoid-shaped. The parametric study is performed by varying the fin number, fin space, and fin thickness. The maximum heat flux is 1.47 × 106 W m−2 in the present study. Boiling patterns are captured by a high speed camera. The results show that the foam thickness significantly influences the pool boiling heat transfer performance, and its effect heavily depends on fin space and fin number.