Prediction of radiative heat transfer in metallic foams

A simplified analytical-numerical method to model radiation heat transfer in metallic foams is proposed. It modifies a model taken from the literature and allows to predict the radiative conductivity for high and low porosity foams. A simplified cubic representative elementary volume of the foam is assumed and radiative heat flux is evaluated by computing radiosities and view factors. The analytical approach proposed in this paper slightly modifies some coefficients of the original model. Test ray-tracing and numerical simulations based onto Monte Carlo method are carried out in order to consistently calculate some view factors. The comparison with experimental results shows that predictions of the proposed model are more accurate than those of the original one.