Open Access
ARTICLE
Thermal Modeling and Analysis of Metal Foam Heat Sink with Thermal Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Models
Yongtong Li1, Liang Gong1, *, Hui Lu1, Dexin Zhang1, Bin Ding1
1 College of New Energy, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China.
* Corresponding Author: Liang Gong. Email: .
(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Advances in Modeling and Simulation of Complex Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow)
Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2020, 123(2), 895-912. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2020.09009
Received 01 November 2019; Accepted 17 December 2019; Issue published 01 May 2020
Abstract
In the present study, the thermal performance of metal foam heat sink was
numerically investigated by adopting the local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) model
and local thermal equilibrium (LTE) model. Temperature field distributions and
temperature difference field distributions of solid and fluid phases were presented.
Detailed thermal performance comparisons based on the LTE and LTNE models were
evaluated by considering the effects of the relevant metal foam morphological and
channel geometrical parameters. Results indicate that a distinct temperature difference
exists between the solid and fluid phases when the LTNE effect is pronounced. The
average Nusselt numbers predicted by both the LTE and LTNE models are approaching
with the increase of porosity, pore density, Reynolds number, large thermal conductivity
ratio, and large aspect ratio. This is attributed to the significant reduction of the interstitial
convective thermal resistance between the solid and fluid phases, as a result, the LTE
model can replace the LTNE model for thermal modeling in these conditions. In addition,
the overall thermal performance assessment of metal foam heat sink is compared with the
non-porous heat sink, and it shows that the thermal performance factor of metal foam
heat sink is approximately two times of the non-porous heat sink.
Keywords
Cite This Article
Li, Y., Gong, L., Lu, H., Zhang, D., Ding, B. (2020). Thermal Modeling and Analysis of Metal Foam Heat Sink with Thermal Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Models.
CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, 123(2), 895–912. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2020.09009
Citations