Modelling of airflow through open-cell polyurethane foams

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to compute the air-flow permeability K for laminar flow, for wet Kelvin foam models, as a function of cell size and cell face hole size. The predictions were compared with experimental data for a range of open-cell polyurethane (PU) foams. This suggests that the foam permeability is a function of the area of largest hole in the cells. The predictions are almost the same as those for dry Kelvin foams, showing that the face hole size and cell size are the main factors that determines foam permeability. (c) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.