Comparison of metal foam and louvered fins as air-side heat transfer enhancement media for miniaturized condensers

Experimental work was conducted to compare the thermal-hydraulic performances of cross-flow microchannel condensers using louvered fins and metal foams as extended surfaces. Three copper foam surfaces with pore densities of 10 and 20 pores per inch (PPI) and porosities of 89.3 and 94.7%, and three aluminum louvered fins with lengths of 27 and 32 mm (in the flow direction) and heights of 5 and 7.5 mm were evaluated. The experiments were carried out in a closed loop wind-tunnel calorimeter equipped with a R-600a refrigeration loop. A condensing temperature of 45 °C was used in all tests, with face velocities ranging from 2.1 to 7.7 m/s. A comparison based on the thermal conductance and air-side pumping power showed that the surfaces enhanced with louvered fins performed better than the metal foams under all conditions investigated.