Natural convection in metal foam strips with internal heat generation

Natural convection heat transfer in metal foam strips, with internal heat generation, was investigated experimentally for two porosities. An estimate of the non-equilibrium temperature distribution was done by image processing of the thermal maps on both the surface and the inner region of the metal foam specimen. It was shown that heat transfer at natural convection in the strip of metal foam was increased drastically (up to 18-20 times for metal foam of 20 ppi) relative to the flat plate of the same overall dimensions. The heat transfer from ligaments of metal foam was estimated. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.