High porosity micro-foams with open cells have shown distinctive properties: relatively low manufacturing cost, ultra-low density, and high surface area-to-volume ratio, and therefore have been utilized in a variety of engineering applications such as microelectronics cooling, fuel cells and compact heat exchangers.The high heat transfer area per unit volume, high conducting ligaments and strong flow mixing capability have led to the promising heat transfer enhancement of micro-foams.Without destroying the macro-structural topology of the foam, a novel approach is proposed to further enlarge its surface area-to-volume ratio by growing micro rods on the surface of metallic ligaments for the purpose of further heat transfer enhancement.The understanding of transport phenomena in porous micro-foam paves the foundation for industrial and environmental processes covering a broad range of disciplines.Particular attention has been paid to the determination of key thermophysical properties, including permeability as a key factor in fluid flow and thermal analysis of metal foam-cored heat exchanger systems.