Thermo-Fluid Dynamic Modeling of Cu Based Metallic Foams for Heat Exchanger Applications

C.A. Biffi[1], A. Tuissi[1]
[1]National Research Council of Italy, Lecco, Italy
Published in 2013

In this work the innovative concept is the use of a Cu based metallic foam, characterized by open cell structure, as active element for heat exchangers. The metallic foam, produced by liquid infiltration method, was introduced inside a Cu tube, as base element for the exchanger. In the configuration under investigation, an moist air flow at few hundreds of degrees passes through the metallic foam and the heat is transferred to the water, flowing in the opposite direction, at room temperature in an external coaxial tube. Modeling of this complex system was done using COMSOL Multiphysics®. Results show how the contribute of the Cu based foam can improve the efficiency in the heat transfer in comparison with the configuration without the metallic foam.