Thermal properties of closed-cell aluminum foam with circular pores

The thermal property of closed-cell aluminum foam is studied numerically and the effects of the distribution of the circular pore on the thermal property are studied theoretically. When the convection and radiation are ignored, the effects of porosity, cell size, and distribution forms of pore on the apparent thermal conductivity are investigated. Moreover, the effects of air in the pore on the thermal property are analyzed as well. Simulation results show that apparent thermal conductivity linearly increases with the increase of porosity, while the cell size and the distribution have negligible effects on the thermal property. By comparison, thermal conductivity of air has slight effect on thermal property of foamed aluminum in the context of small size pore.