Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics in an Annulus Filled with Aluminum Foam

An experimental investigation on the flow and convective heat transfer characteristics has been carried out far aluminum foam heat sink inserted into the annulus to examine the feasibility as a heat sink. Two aluminum foams or different permeability were selected to provide the friction factor and heat transfer correlations as function of Darcy, Reynolds and Prandtl number. Experimental results show that the friction factor is higher than clear annulus without aluminum foam, while times augmentation in Nusselt number is obtained. This technique can be used for the compactness of the heat exchanger.