Forced convection inside metal foam: Simulation over a long domain and analytical validation

In this paper a long domain, made up of numerous idealized geometrical cells in the flow direction, is used to numerically simulate heat transfer in the foam. The idealized cells mimic the complex morphology of open-cell solid foam. The large number of cells avoided periodicity issues and ensured minimal or no size and entrance effects. The conjugate laminar flow and energy equations are solved directly at the pore level; and the temperature fields are obtained for various approach velocities using a commercial numerical package. The details of the geometrical modeling and simulation are given in this paper. The commercial foam that was simulated had 20 pores per inch and porosity of 91.5%. The simulation showed a thermal development region. To validate the simulation, direct comparisons to analytical local fluid temperatures from the solution of volume-average two-equation model in the thermally fully-developed region were also carried out. Good agreement between the simulation and analytical results were obtained. The results are encouraging and lend confidence to the geometrical modeling and simulation approach.