This paper presents experimental heat transfer coefficients measured during air flow heating in seven different aluminum open-cell foam samples with different number of pores per inch (PPI), porosity and foam core height under a wide range of air mass velocity. Three imposed heat fluxes are considered for each foam sample: 25.0, 32.5 and 40.0 kW m(-2). The collected heat transfer data are analyzed to obtain the global heat transfer coefficient and the normalized mean wall temperature. A model from the open literature has been selected and compared with the experimental database. A new simple heat transfer model, based on the present data, for the global heat transfer coefficient and the foam-finned surface area efficiency estimations has then been developed and compared against the experimental measurements. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.