Experimental Investigation for Natural Convection Heat Transfer Enhancement by Porous Medium

A porous medium enhancement of convective heat transfer results from the passage of fluid through the open, interconnected void structure, exposing the fluid to large surface area. Many international papers are studied to verify the potential of porous carbon foam in thermal management systems. This was proved experimentally by comparing a bare copper pipe and copper pipe wrapped with porous carbon foam. With the same heat input, porous carbon foam has shown a noticeable enhancement (30 to 55%) in convective heat transfer. The properties of porous carbon foam and its production processes are also discussed. The results are presented with the help of suitable graphs and the phenomenon of heat transfer enhancement is explained in detail.