About the surface area to volume relations of open cell foams

Abstract

Many useful applications of solid open-cell foams make use of their enormous surface, compared to their volume. The large surface is accompanied by a large interface between foam and filling of a fluid, gas or another solid forming a composite material. Due to the large interface, heat exchange between the involved materials takes place in a particularly efficient manner making open cell metallic foams to base materials for heat exchange and heat systems of increasing importance. But what is the mathematical connection between the solid bulk volume fraction and the surface of these porous materials? This question is investigated through the evaluation of 5000 synthetic, randomly generated open-cell cellular structures of different material ratios.