Open cell metal foam is a novel engineering material that offers an interesting combination of material properties from a heat exchanger point of view such as a high specific surface area, tortuous flow paths for flow mixing and low weight. A new heat exchanger design with metal foams is studied in this work, aimed at low airside pressure drop. It consists of a single row of aluminum tubes covered with thin layers (4-8 mm) of metal foam. Through wind tunnel testing the impact of various parameters on the thermohydraulic performance was considered, including the Reynolds number, the tube spacing, the foam height and the type of foam. The results indicated that providing a good metallic bonding between the foam and the tubes can be achieved, metal foam covered tubes with a small tube spacing, small foam heights and made of foam with a high specific surface area potentially offer strong benefits at higher air velocities (>4 m/s) compared to helically finned tubes. The bonding was done by conductive epoxy glue and was found to have a strong impact on the final results, showing a strong need for a cost-effective and efficient brazing process to connect metal foams to the tube surfaces. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.