Abstract | Metal foams (MF) are complex structures made from different kinds of materials manufactured using novel technologies. Proper knowledge of pressure drop and related parameters such as permeability (K) and drag coefficient (C) are important and should be defined properly. Thus, the present study was carried out to have an understanding of permeability for different velocity range to suit various industrial applications. The necessary equipment was designed and built for this purpose. Pressure drop across the metal foams was measured on IMI metal foam (IMIMF) and RECEMAT metal foam (RMF) samples. Parameters, K and C were determined by fitting experimental data on widely accepted quadratic model of Hazen-Dupuit-Darcy. Generally, the experimental results are in good agreement with the model with R 2 >98%. However, repeatability among the same pore diameter samples varies. Parameters were also calculated at different velocity ranges since K and C depend on velocity range. Thus, one has to select these parameters according to the required operating velocity range. Pressure drop across the specimens depends strongly on the structure of the material. In general, the pressure drop of IMIMF is higher than that of RMF by 8-9 times. Minimum K of RMF (0.38×10 -9 m 2) is almost 5 times higher than maximum K of IMIMF (0.07×10 -9 m 2) whereas maximum C of RMF (1.02 ×10 3 m -1 s 2) is one fourth of minimum C of IMIMF (4.01×10 3 m -1 s 2). |
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