Performance of tubular aluminum foam heat exchangers in multiple row bundles

Two sets of aluminum foam cylinders, 5 and 15mm thick, are being tested in two-row and three-row bundles for their thermo-hydraulic performance. The bundles are formed using fixed transversal and longitudinal pitch distances and subject to airflow between 0.5 and 5.0 at 0.5m s(-1) interval under cross-flow. The effects of foam layer thickness and the number of row under staggered configuration are investigated. Thermo-hydraulic results are benchmarking against those of a conventional finned tube bundle of similar dimensions with pre-determined number of fins and assembled using the same pitch distances.