Thermal conductivity of metallic hollow sphere structures: An experimental, analytical and comparative study

The thermal conductivity of metallic hollow sphere structures is analyzed in terms of their main structural parameters (sphere diameter, shell thickness and constituent metal) by using analytical/empirical models to estimate the relative density and admitted scaling laws to determine the thermal conductivity. These results are compared with experimental values of such structures determined by the transient plane source method. In addition, a thermal conductivity map comparing these results with the typical thermal conductivity of other cellular metallic materials is provided.