Numerical analysis of the binder angle effect on convective heat transfer and pressure drop in drilled-hollow sphere architected foams

Abstract

Due to their capability of generating customized microstructures, additive manufactured cellular materials are promising to being employed in heat transfer devices. To this aim, among printable cellular materials Drilled-Hollow Spheres Architected (DHSA) foams are investigated. However, at the present status, limited data on pressure drop and heat transfer in DHSAs are available. Starting from hollow spheres, a metal DHSA foam is generated with CAD software in this study. Forced air convective heat transfer in the foam is investigated numerically, under the assumptions of air incompressible laminar flow and uniform wall heat flux from the solid to the fluid phase. Mass, momentum and energy equations in the fluid region are written and solved numerically, for various values of the foam binder angle and the velocity of the inlet air. The convective heat transfer coefficients, the pressure drop and the friction factor are predicted. The effects of the binder angle and the air inlet velocity on heat transfer and pressure drop are highlighted.