Heat transfer performance of LCS porous copper with different structural characteristics

Porous metals are highly efficient media for active cooling and thermal management. However, the working fluid requires high pumping power to flow through the porous metals. This paper investigated the effect of structural characteristics (porosity, pore size and Cu particle size) on the heat transfer performance of porous Cu manufactured by Lost Carbonate Sintering (LCS). The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of porous Cu samples with porosity from 0.48 to 0.78, pore size from 250-1500 μm and Cu particle size from 75 to 841 μm were measured under the one-dimensional forced convection condition using water. For all the samples with different pore sizes and Cu particle sizes, the optimum heat transfer coefficient was observed at a porosity between 0.6 and 0.7 and the pressure drop decreased with increasing porosity. The effect of pore size on heat transfer coefficient was not pronounced while pressure drop decreased with decreasing pore size. Samples with large Cu particles (841 μm) had higher optimum heat transfer coefficients and lower pressure drops. The coefficient of performance (CoP), which can be used to describe the overall heat transfer performance, increased with increasing porosity, decreasing pore size and increasing Cu particle size.