Enhancement of Thermohydraulic Performance in 3D Annulus Based on Different Configurations of Copper Metal Foam

ABSTRACT This paper presents a numerical simulation of induced convection through an annular air channel filled with annular open‐cell metal foam (OCMF) made of copper. The study investigates the effect of metal foam designation on pressure drop characteristics and heat transfer enhancement, concentrating on thermo‐hydraulic performance. The effects of different metal foam thicknesses (3.5, 5.25, and 7 mm), metal foam pore densities (10, 20, 30, and 40 PPI), and longitudinal segmentation of the metal foam into several parts on the thermo‐hydraulic characteristics were investigated using ANSYS Fluent 2022 R1. All computations are performed within a turbulent Reynolds number range (5000 ≤ Re ≤ 7000) with five different air velocities (2.85, 3.2, 3.4, 3.7, and 3.9 m/s) and a uniform heat flux of 2000 W/m². Also, this paper focuses on numerically investigating the impact of varying annular tube with splitting serrated finned (SSF) channel with (6, 10, and 14) serrated fin were formed on five parts of metal foam. Results indicate that performance decreases with increasing Reynolds number at a constant pore density and improves with increasing PPI, reaching a maximum value of 1.36 at 40 PPI and Re = 5000. The study found that a 5.25 mm metal foam thickness performed better at lower Reynolds numbers (5000, 5500, and 6000), while a 3.5 mm metal foam thickness performed better as Reynolds numbers increased beyond this range. The best thermo‐hydraulic results are obtained with a metal foam thickness of 5.25 mm and Re = 5000. The study reveals that the thermo‐hydraulic performance of three parts and five parts of metal foam at a 5.25 mm metal foam thickness and 40 PPI decreases with increasing Reynolds number. At a Reynolds number of 5000, the greatest performance is shown by the five parts of metal foam (1.44), whereas the three parts of metal foam (1.41).