Convection heat transfer characteristics of pore-scale Laguerre Voronoi open-cell foam

doi:10.16085/j.issn.1000-6613.2025-0119

Abstract

Abstract:

To enhance the convective heat transfer performance of artificially designed open-cell foams, a novel porous foam model, the Laguerre Voronoi (LV) model, is proposed. This model effectively captures both the periodicity and randomness of real foams, avoiding flow-through and enabling quantitative control over pore blockage issues, while demonstrating excellent convective heat transfer performance. Using a parameterized integrated modeling approach, a series of LV foams with different geometric parameters are reconstructed. Pore-scale numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the influence of inlet velocity, apparent, and pore structure parameters (porosity, hydraulic diameter, cell diameter, and relative strut diameter) on the convective heat transfer performance of LV foams. Experimental measurements are used to validate the reliability of the numerical results, and comparisons are made with existing models, including the Lord-Kelvin (L-K) model, traditional process models, and X-ray computed tomography (X-CT) scan models. Based on this, two types of convective heat transfer correlations are fitted using pore and apparent parameters. The applicability, prediction accuracy, and error distribution characteristics of the correlations are analyzed in detail. The results show that, compared to the L-K model, LV foam exhibits more realistic pore structures and higher convective heat transfer performance. The volumetric heat transfer coefficient increases monotonically with the inlet velocity and follows a parabolic distribution with increasing relative strut diameter (or decreasing porosity), with its symmetry axis related to the Reynolds number. The two convective heat transfer correlations proposed in this paper are applicable to a wide range of geometric parameters and Reynolds numbers, with the maximum relative error less than 20%, showing good prediction accuracy and providing an efficient tool for predicting the convective heat transfer performance of open-cell foams.

Key words: porous media, pore-scale numerical simulation, convection, heat transfer, correlation

摘要：

为提高人工设计开孔泡沫的对流传热性能，提出了一种新型泡沫多孔Laguerre Voronoi（LV）模型，该模型能够有效还原实际泡沫的周期性和随机性，避免了流动贯穿，同时还可对孔隙堵塞问题进行定量调控，具有良好的对流传热性能。基于参数式一体化建模方法，重建了一系列具有不同几何参数的LV泡沫，通过孔隙尺度数值模拟分析了入口流速、表观及孔隙结构参数（孔隙率、水力直径、元胞直径、相对肋筋直径）对LV泡沫对流传热性能的影响，结合实验测量验证数值结果可靠性，并与现有研究中提出的Lord-Kelvin（L-K）模型、传统工艺模型及X射线计算机断层成像（X-CT）扫描模型进行对比。在此基础上，基于孔隙参数及表观参数分别拟合了两类对流传热关联式，对关联式的适用性、预测精度及误差分布特性进行了详细分析。结果表明，相比L-K模型，LV泡沫具有更为真实的孔隙结构，对流传热性能更佳；容积传热系数随入口流速增大而单调增大，随相对肋筋直径增大（或孔隙率减小）成抛物线分布，其对称轴与雷诺数相关。本文提出的两类对流换热关联式适用于广泛的几何参数和雷诺数范围，最大相对误差均小于20%，具有良好的预测精度，可用于高效预测开孔泡沫的对流传热性能。

关键词: 多孔介质, 孔隙尺度模拟, 对流, 传热, 关联式

CLC Number:

TK124

DAI Guilong, WANG Xiaoyu, HUANGFU Jiangfei, GONG Lingzhu. Convection heat transfer characteristics of pore-scale Laguerre Voronoi open-cell foam[J]. Chemical Industry and Engineering Progress, 2025, 44(8): 4394-4407.

戴贵龙, 王孝宇, 皇甫江飞, 龚凌诸. 孔隙尺度下Laguerre Voronoi开孔泡沫的对流传热特性[J]. 化工进展, 2025, 44(8): 4394-4407.

Figures/Tables 18

d_c/mm	d_s/d_c	ϕ/%	a_sf/m^-1	d_h/mm
3	0.11	96.8	367.12	10.60
	0.25	85.3	708.21	4.80
	0.30	80.1	786.51	4.10
	0.32	78.1	803.64	3.90
	0.35	74.7	839.51	3.60
	0.45	61.8	901.96	2.70
4	0.10	96.9	301.85	12.84
	0.25	83.5	598.05	5.59
	0.31	76.2	673.91	4.52
	0.34	71.9	709.12	4.05
	0.38	67.6	727.36	3.72
	0.45	56.6	761.86	2.97
5	0.10	96.8	245.77	15.76
	0.24	84.3	473.60	7.12
	0.30	77.5	526.40	5.89
	0.32	74.4	551.30	5.40
	0.36	69.9	567.52	4.93
	0.45	56.0	599.60	3.74

D/mm	L/mm	ϕ	d_s/d_c	d_c/mm	ρ_s/kg·m^-3	c_s/J·kg^-1·K^-1	λ_s/W·m^-1·K^-1
25	40	0.629	0.41	4.0	2670	900	120

尺度	结构参数	表达式	拟合评价
尺度	结构参数	表达式	R²	平均绝对百分比误差（MAPE）/%
孔隙（元胞）	$d c, d s / d c$	$N u s f, c = 2.2 d s d c 2 - 2.7 d s d c + 1.2 R e c 0.562 P r 0.33$	0.981	7.9
孔隙（元胞）	$d c, d s / d c$	$N u v, c = - 8.3 d s d c 2 + 4.8 d s d c + 0.4 R e c 0.613 P r 0.33$	0.974	11.6
表观（骨架）	$d h, ϕ$	$N u s f, h = (16.2 ϕ 2 - 20.4 ϕ + 7.0) R e h 0.510 P r 0.33$	0.987	14.3
表观（骨架）	$d h, ϕ$	$N u v, h = (74.0 ϕ 2 - 93.2 ϕ + 30.7) R e h 0.504 P r 0.33$	0.988	17.7

尺度	结构参数	表达式	拟合评价
尺度	结构参数	表达式	R²	平均绝对百分比误差（MAPE）/%
孔隙（元胞）	$d c, d s / d c$	$N u s f, c = 2.2 d s d c 2 - 2.7 d s d c + 1.2 R e c 0.562 P r 0.33$	0.981	7.9
孔隙（元胞）	$d c, d s / d c$	$N u v, c = - 8.3 d s d c 2 + 4.8 d s d c + 0.4 R e c 0.613 P r 0.33$	0.974	11.6
表观（骨架）	$d h, ϕ$	$N u s f, h = (16.2 ϕ 2 - 20.4 ϕ + 7.0) R e h 0.510 P r 0.33$	0.987	14.3
表观（骨架）	$d h, ϕ$	$N u v, h = (74.0 ϕ 2 - 93.2 ϕ + 30.7) R e h 0.504 P r 0.33$	0.988	17.7

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