Álvarez Hernández, Ángel R.

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    Combined flow and heat transfer characterization of open cell aluminum foams
    (2005) Álvarez Hernández, Ángel R.; Dukhan, Nihad; College of Engineering; Coutín Rodicio, Sandra; Gutiérrez, Gustavo; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Shafiq, Basir
    The use of open-cell metal foams have been widely increasing given by its diverse novel properties in various areas including aerospace, electronics and automotive among others. They are a relative new class of materials with very promising applications in which it’s low density, high surface area to volume ratio and other thermal, mechanical, electrical and acoustical properties make this material an excellent means for performance improvement. Important applications have been found taking advantage of the thermal properties of the metal foam. These applications include compact heat exchangers for airborne equipment, air-cooled condenser towers, both the regenerative and the dissipative type, and compact heatsinks for power electronics. The low relative density, open porosity and high thermal conductivity of the cell edges, the large accessible surface area per unit volume, and the ability to mix the cooling fluid, all make metal foam heat exchangers efficient, compact and light weight. Although it is proven to be very promising, still the use of the open-cell metal foams require extensive efforts to achieve a full characterization. It is as an objective in this thesis work to provide new insights to the characterization of the fluid behavior through the foam and its thermo physical properties. This will be found very useful for the use of metal foams in heat transfer and flow applications. Also the use of metal foams as heat sinks in electronic cooling is evaluated, and its advantages and disadvantages are highlighted for future reference.