CFD STUDY OF SELECTED FLUID AND THERMAL CHARACTERISTIC IN OPEN-CELL METAL FOAM ELEMENT FOR SOLAR THERMAL APPLICATIONS

References: 17th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2017, www.sgem.org, SGEM2017 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-07-2 / ISSN 1314-2704, 29 June - 5 July, 2017, Vol. 17, Issue 42, 119-126 pp, DOI: 10.5593/sgem2017/42/S17.016

ABSTRACT

The present paper deals with the study of fluid and thermal characteristics of the metal foam with an open cell structure for use in solar thermal applications. The study of selected parameters was performed using CFD tools based on finite volume method calculation in software Ansys Fluent. Presented simulation was carried out on two types of metal foam elements with a density of pores of 10 and 20 PPI, which were designed and modeled by the authors using CAD tools. The basis of a model formed tetrakaidecahedron structure copied in required space to achieve isometric properties of the model with following modification that ensures the highest rate of compliance with the real structure of metal foam. The resulting evaluation of essentials fluid and the thermal characteristics has the form of velocity, pressure and heat maps depicting the interaction of flowing medium and the structure of the metal foam. Appropriate knowledge and understanding of the listed characteristics allows optimizing the design of solar thermal applications using metal foams regarding savings in material, dimensions and increasing operational efficiency of selected devices using renewable energy sources.

Keywords: metal foam; solar thermal collector; CFD analysis;