A study on the heat transfer performance of aluminum foam by pore density

Heat transfer performance of an aluminum foam by porosity was investigated. Thermal conductivity was measured by the relative comparison technique which is one of the KS standard thermal conductivity measuring methods. Based on experimental results, modified scaling relationship model, respectively determined from the solid and fluid conduction mechanisms corresponding to the metal-wall and air, was suggested to represent the porosity effect on heat transfer property. By evaluating the effective thermal conductivity of the aluminum foam with pore density of 0.87, the existing scaling relationship model showed 3.83 W/m·K, and newly developed model was 1.14 W/m·K. Based on the prediction with experimental data of 1.40 W/m·K for the case, it was confirmed that the modified scaling relationship model described much more effectively the heat transfer property of the material