Equivalent Parallel Strands Modeling of Highly-Porous Media for Two-Dimensional Heat Transfer: Application to Metal Foam

A new geometric modeling of isotropic highly-porous cellular media, e.g., open-cell metal, ceramic, and graphite foams, is developed. The modelling is valid strictly for macroscopically two-dimensional heat transfer due to the fluid flow in highly-porous media. Unlike the current geometrical modelling of such media, the current model employs simple geometry, and is derived from equivalency conditions that are imposed on the model’s geometry a priori, in order to ensure that the model produces the same pressure drop and heat transfer as the porous medium it represents. The model embodies the internal structure of the highly-porous media, e.g., metal foam, using equivalent parallel strands (EPS), which are rods arranged in a spatially periodic two-dimensional pattern. The dimensions of these strands and their arrangement are derived from equivalency conditions, ensuring that the porosity and the surface area density of the model and of the foam are indeed equal. In order to obtain the pressure drop and heat transfer results, the governing equations are solved on the geometrically-simple EPS model, instead of the complex structure of the foam. By virtue of the simple geometry of parallel strands, huge savings on computational time and cost are realized. The application of the modeling approach to metal foam is provided. It shows how an EPS model is obtained from an actual metal foam with known morphology. Predictions of the model are compared to experimental data on metal foam from the literature. The predicted local temperatures of the model are found to be in very good agreement with their experimental counterparts, with a maximum error of less than 11%. The pressure drop in the model follows the Forchheimer equation.