Numerical Simulations of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer through Aluminum and Copper Metal Foam Heat Exchanger – A Comparative Study

Abstract

This article discusses about a numerical simulation of a metal foam heat exchanger system carried out by a commercial software. A metal foam layer is attached to the bottom of the heat exchanger to absorb heat from the exhaust hot gas leaving the system. Two types of metal foams with two different pores per inch (PPI) values are considered for heat transfer enhancement. Similarly, two different materials Aluminum and copper, that poses high thermal conductivity, metal foams are considered for the present numerical simulations. The heat exchanger system is simulated over a range of 6–30 m/s fluid velocity. The proposed simulations are compared with theoretical and experimental data available in the literature. The goal is to improve the thermal performance of the heat exchanger by decreasing the pressure drop and maximizing the heat transfer rate. Finally, it has been noticed that the velocity of the fluid decreases as PPI increases at the expense of its pressure drop. The copper metal foam gives a maximum increase of 4–10% heat transfer rate compared to aluminum metal foams for a fluid velocity of 30 m/s.

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Notes on contributors

Banjara Kotresha

Banjara Kotresha is a research scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from University B D T College of Engineering, Davangere, Karnataka in 2002 and obtained his Master’s degree from the same university in Thermal Engineering Systems Technology in 2006. His research interests include numerical simulations, fluid flow and heat transfer through porous media, inverse methods, and experimental heat transfer. Currently carrying out research in the area of fluid flow and heat transfer through porous media under the supervision of Dr. N. Gnanasekaran.

Nagarajan Gnanasekaran

Nagarajan Gnanasekaran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, India. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering (2002) from Bharathidasan University and obtained his Master of Engineering in Thermal Engineering (2006) from Government College of Technology, Coimbatore and Ph.D. (2012), from Indian Institute of Technology Madras Chennai under the supervision of Prof. C. Balaji. His research interests include computational inverse problems, bio-heat transfer, stochastic modeling techniques, experimental and numerical heat transfer, hybrid optimization, heat and fluid flow in porous media.