Water pool boiling across low pore density aluminum foams

Abstract

In this paper, experimental data pertinent to deionized water pool boiling across 10 mm thick aluminum foams are presented. Two foam samples with different pore densities, 5 and 10 pores per inch, yet an identical mean porosity of 0.92 are tested. Compared to a heated flat plate, of the same base size, the foams offer higher heat transfer area albeit at induced bubble escaping resistance. The tradeoff between these two effects is investigated. Through the use of high-speed camera recording, bubble generation, trajectory and growth rate were analyzed and critically discussed as functions of the working conditions and of the foam geometry. Furthermore, the experimental data were compared against a correlation appositely proposed for water pool boiling on metal foams. A good degree of agreement was observed.

Acknowledgments

Dr. Lisa Biasetto is gratefully acknowledged for her fundamental help in preparing the foam samples.

Notes on contributors

Giulia Righetti received her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Padova, Italy. She is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Management and Engineering. Her research activity is mainly focused on new low-GWP refrigerants two-phase heat transfer in enhanced surfaces for air conditioning and refrigeration.

Luca Doretti graduated in Mechanical Engineering with a Ph.D. in Energy Management and is an Associate Professor of Applied Thermodynamics. Currently, he works for the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Eng. (ICEA) at University of Padova. His research activity (both experimental and theoretical) is mainly concerned with enhanced heat transfer during two-phase processes for refrigeration applications, with thermodynamics of the inverse cycles and with thermophysical properties of refrigerant fluids. A specific topic of his scientific research is dedicated to experimental heat transfer in metal foams with waxes or PCM and to nano-fluids application and experimentation. He has authored or coauthored around 100 international papers.

Hosein Sadafi received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Queensland, Australia in 2016. In his Ph.D. dissertation, he showed that using saline water for spray cooling not only preserves drinking water sources and leads to budget saving but also may improve the cooling performance of a cooling system. Currently, he is doing a postdoctoral research at Université libre de Bruxelles on evaporation and heat and mass transfer from multiphase fluids.

Kamel Hooman completed his Ph.D. at University of Queensland, for which he received a Dean’s Award for Research Higher Degree Excellence and an Emerald Engineering Award (Outstanding Doctoral Research). He is a T&R academic staff within the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering. His research interests are in Thermofluids and Energy. He is the Director of Renewable Energy Conversion Center of Excellence and has a strong research record in the field of heat transfer and energy. He is recognized worldwide for his work on heat exchangers and cooling towers which are essential technology for power generation and energy management. He has pioneered the use of metal foams in fuel cells, supercritical heat exchangers for geo/solar thermal power plants, and scaling of natural draft dry cooling towers. He is currently serving the International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Journal of Porous Media, and Heat Transfer Engineering as an Associate Editor.

Simone Mancin completed his Ph.D. at the University of Padova. He is an Associate Professor of Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer at the Department of Management and Engineering of the University of Padova, Italy. He is a member of Commission B1 – Thermodynamics & Transfer Processes of the International Institute of Refrigeration. His research activity is mainly focused on single- and two-phase heat transfer in enhanced surfaces and micro-geometries for electronic thermal management and air conditioning and refrigeration. He is author or coauthor of about 120 papers, most published in the international scientific press. He is currently serving the Heat Exchanger Design Handbook (HEDH) and Heliyon as an Associate Editor.

Additional information

Funding

This research project was partially funded by CariVerona Foundation, Verona, Italy, Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica 2016–2019: “Sostenibilità e autenticazione nutrizionale di filiere lattiero-casearie a tutela del consumatore.”