Numerical simulation of heat transfer in the near-wall region of tubular reactors packed with metal open-cell foams

A numerical investigation of the thermal transport processes in the near-wall region of a reactor packed with metal open-cell foams is presented in view of the development of externally-cooled tubular reactors packed with catalytically active foams. Two different aluminium open-cell foams were scanned by X-ray micro-computed tomography in order to generate the 3D models used in this study. The conjugated solid-fluid heat transfer problem is solved by finite volume analysis (FVA) for different flow rates and fluid properties (Peclet number range from 1 to 105). Predictive correlations for the wall heat transfer coefficient are derived according to different thermal coupling scenarios between the open-cell foam bed and the reactor wall. Such kind of systematic study and the proposed correlations that account for the gap size represent a novelty in the field of published literature on open-cell foams. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.