Measurement of effective thermal conductivity and permeability on aluminum foam metal

알루미늄 발포금속의 유효열전도도와 침투율의 측정

Effective thermal conductivities and pressure-drop-related properties of aluminum foam metals have been measured. The effects of porosity and cell size in the aluminum foam metal are investigated in detail. The porosity of the foam metal, considered in the present study, varies from 0.89 to 0.96 and the cell size from 0.65㎜ to 2.5㎜. The effective thermal conductivity is evaluated by comparing the temperature gradient of the foam metal with that of the thermal conductivity-known material. The pressure drop in the foam metal is measured by a highly precise electric manometer while air is flowing through the aluminum foam metal in the channel. The results obtained indicate that the effective thermal conductivities are found to be increased with a decrease in the porosity while the effective thermal conductivities ire little affected by the cell size at a fixed porosity. However, the pressure drop is strongly affected by the cell size as well as the porosity. It is seen that the pressure drop is increased as the cell size becomes smaller, as expected. The minimum pressure drop is obtained in the porosity 0.94 at a fixed cell size. A new correlation of the pressure drop is proposed based on the permeability and Ergun's coefficient for the aluminum foam metal.