Uneven cell temperatures demand efficient thermal management. This work quantifies how ordered porous metal-foam structures affect forced-air cooling at the module level and clarifies the trade-off between cooling benefit and hydraulic penalty. A three-dimensional porous-media thermal–fluid model with local thermal equilibrium is parameterized by measured and simulated effective conductivity and pressure-drop-based resistance, and applied to four topologies (Auxetic, Lattice, Kelvin, ISO-truss) under constant-current discharge represented by a uniform 30-watt heat source per cell. Metrics include maximum cell temperature, temperature spread, pressure drop, and pumping power; mesh independence and experimental uncertainty are documented. The Auxetic foam performs best: effective conductivity 5.10 W· m−1·K−1; at 30 g·s−1 airflow it reduces the peak temperature from 54.48 °C without foam to 39.58 °C. Achieving a temperature spread below 5 °C requires at least 80 g·s−1. The cooling gain comes with higher flow resistance and pumping power.
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