Thin-Shell Model for Effective Thermal and Electrical Conductivity of Highly Porous Closed-Cell Metal Foams

Abstract

In this paper, a unit-cell model for determination of the effective thermal and electrical conductivity, respectively, of highly porous, closed-cell metal foams is presented. Hereby, (i) a large contrast between the transport properties of the conducting, solid material phase and the pore space is assumed, and (ii) thin, interconnected spherical shells of the solid material phase in a simple cubic arrangement are considered as a geometrical model. The unit-cell model prediction is compared to (i) literature data and (ii) well-established homogenization schemes from the effective medium theory.