Comparative experimental performance research on parameter optimization of foam metal radiators

As a new type of plate fin radiator, foam metal radiators can be widely applied in the automobile and petrochemical industry field. The foam metal fin structure has great influence on the heat exchange performance. In this paper, a parameterized optimization method to optimize the airside heat exchange structure of foam metal has been presented. Comparative experimental performance research on the initial and optimized foam metal radiators have been carried out. Results showed the unit volume heat dissipation rate and airside heat transfer coefficient of the optimized foam metal radiator compared with the initial radiator has a maximum increase of 6.5 % and 1.43 %, respectively, under the airflow rate from 800 m3/h to 2800 m3/h at the ambient pressure of 58 kPa and room temperature. The optimized radiator has the better overall performance at higher airflow rate, where the comprehensive evaluation factor (i.e. JF) of optimized radiator is larger than that of the initial radiator. The optimized radiator has better heat dissipation performance and needs lower fan power consumption under the same gas side resistance. The effectiveness of the parameter optimization method has been validated by experimental results and can be used to optimize the structure of foam metal radiator.