Open-celled metal foam

Open-celled metal foams are typically replicas made with an open-celled polyurethane foam skeleton. These foams have numerous applications, including heat exchangers, energy absorption, flow diffusion, and lightweight optics. In the chemical industry, extremely fine-scale open-cell foams are used as high-temperature filters. Metallic foams used in compact heat exchangers improve heat transfer at the expense of increased pressure drop. However, their use allows the physical size of a heat exchanger to be significantly reduced, as well as the fabrication costs.