**4.3 Finned foams**

Finned metal foams were also presented as new designs for thermal applications in [30, 31]. The multiphase open-pore materials developed by Bhattacharya and Mahajan [30] combine alternated parallel aluminum fins with 5 and 20 PPI aluminum foams joined with epoxy glue, as it was previously schematized in **Figure 4**. The results reported in [30] show that these finned foams enhance the heat transfer performance in comparison with conventional aluminum foams, being this increase proportional to the number of fins in the foam. Compared with equivalent aluminum foams, an increase of approximately 150% was reached when fine fins were incorporated. Despite the improved thermal performance of finned foams, the existent joints between components result in poor heat transfer among them. In order to improve the heat transfer between components, new finned foam structures with continuous matrix (no joints) were developed in the last years, and their main characteristics are detailed in next sections.
