Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Abstract
The flow and heat transfer in pipes filled with metal foams were studied numerically.In this study,the two-equation model based on LNTE (Local Non-Thermal equilibrium) was employed as energy equations,furthermore the flow models extended by Brinkman and Brinkman-Forchheimer were employed as momentum equations respectively,and a comparison between these two models was made and analysed.The numerical results indicate that the velocity profiles under two models are different,but their temperature profiles are almost the same as each other,consequently,there are barely differences between the Nu numbers under two models.According to numerical results,the Nu number of metal-foam filled pipes is of the order of magnitude of 102～103,which is much bigger than that of bare pipes and conventional heat exchangers.The metal-foam filled pipes exhibit excellent heat transfer performance,however high pressure drop is produced at the same time.By using the program for heat transfer calculation of metal foam that is developed by us,someone can make optimization of heat transfer and pressure drop in practical applications
