Thermal conductivity of metal coated polymer foam: Integrated experimental and modeling study

Foams offer extremely large surface area per unit mass, making them competitive material for heat exchangers and energy storage systems. Understanding the influence of foam characteristics, i.e., size, distribution concentration pores, ligament defects as well architecture, on thermal transport is important when designing foam-based devices. In this article, we present effective conductivity open-cell polyurethane (PU) (20 PPI) with ~10 ?m thick nickel coating measured by transient plane source (TPS) method. A calibration methodology TPS method developed to obtain accurate measurements. finite element model resistance are transfer in metal coated foams occurring near room temperature. For precisely modeling architecture topology, an X-Ray tomography employed. The models used investigate how Ni thickness affects conductivity. Lastly, discuss assumptions related discrepancy between predictions measurements polymer-metal foams.