Hydrodynamic Characterization of Nickel Metal Foam,Part 1: Single-Phase Permeability

This article presents results of the investigation of the fluid dynamic behavior in CVD processed nickel metal foams. An experimental facility was developed to measure the single-phase permeability in nickel metal foams in Darcian flow regime. Data on permeability values of seven different nickel foam samples was obtained. The pore sizes of the foam were obtained with scanning electron microscope. By defining friction factor and Reynolds number based on the permeability length scale a correlation was obtained for the foam permeability in Darcian flow regime. The result from this study was compared with the correlations reported by other researchers, and was found to be in good agreement.