The work investigated the spatial thermal regulation of an aluminum foam heat sink using a high-conductivity conductive pipe. The fluid medium was air. The test specimens were measured in four modes -without a conductive pipe (A), with a copper conductive pipe (B), with arc gaps in the front and rear parts of the porous conductive pipe (C) and with lateral arc gaps beside the porous conductive pipe (D). The range of Reynolds numbers was Re = 883-4416. Local and average Nusselt numbers were examined. The experimental results indicate that the conductive pipe in an aluminum foam heat sink was very effective in spatial thermal regulation, especially in mode D with lateral arc gaps, which were approximately along the stream-wise axis, beside the conductive pipe. However, using the conductive pipe in the aluminum foam heat sink studied herein did not promote overall heat transfer. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.