Hydrodynamic Characterization of Nickel Metal Foam, Part 2: Effects of Pore Structure and Permeability

Abstract

In this article, the structural characterization of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) nickel metal foam is presented. Scanning electron microscope and post image processing were used to carefully analyze the surface of the nickel metal foams. Data on foam unit cell, ligament thickness, projected pore diameter, and averaged porosity was obtained. Unit cell and projected pore diameters of CVD nickel metal foam possess Gaussian-like distribution. Characteristics of pore structure and its effect on permeability in Darcian flow regime were analyzed. The relations between the permeability, pore size, and porosity are presented. Present and previous data are compared with these relations. Measurement results indicate that the permeability or the viscous conductivity of the CVD processed metal foam is affected not only by the pore size, and porosity but also by the ligament structure.

Efficient X-ray CT-based numerical computations of structural and mass transport properties of nickel foam-based GDLs for PEFCs

“…Namely, Khayargoli et al [104] and Medraj et al [122] experimentally estimated the through-plane permeability of nickel foam as 1.30 × 10 − 9 m 2 . The average in-plane permeability computed in this study lies between that reported by Hugo et al (1.38 × 10 − 9 m 2 ) [102] and that reported by Miwa and Revankar (1.45 × 10 − 9 m 2 ) [123]. Overall, the gas permeability of nickel foam is at least two orders of magnitudes higher than those of the conventionally used carbon fibre based substrates whose values are normally between 10 − 11 and 10 − 12 m 2 [110].…”

Studies of CO2 absorption and effective interfacial area in a two-stage rotating packed bed with nickel foam packing

“…At the same time, as can be seen in Table 2, values of a p of foam packing with pore size 0.64 mm, 5.08 mm, and stainless steel wire mesh packing were 2916 m À1 , 342 m À1 , and 500 m À1 , respectively and the voidages of these three packings are around 95%. Because it is difficult to characterize the real fluid flow in the pore of the nickel foam packing in the centrifugal field by a visual method, the possible reason for the nickel foam packing with pore size of 0.64 mm is that much more complex flow channels and violent collisions between liquid elements and packing could generate more complex flow patterns and contacting area inside the numerous smaller pores with such a high a p [27,28]. Chen et al [29] reported the issue that the specific surface area of the packing has no such dependence on the mass transfer enhancement in an RPB.…”