Experimental investigation of Al2O3–MgO hot hybrid nanofluid in a plate heat exchanger

Exergy–energy analysis of the plate heat exchanger is experimentally performed with different Al₂O₃–MgO hybrid nanofluid (HyNf) as a hot fluid. There were six combinations of fluids, namely, deionized (DI) water, ethylene glycol–DI water brine (1:9 volume ratio), propylene glycol–DI water brine (1:9 volume ratio), base fluids and their respective Al₂O₃–MgO (4:1 particle volume ratio) HyNfs of 0.1% total volume concentration. The effects of different flow rates and hot inlet temperatures on the heat transfer rate, heat transfer coefficient, pump work, irreversibility, and performance index (PI) are investigated. It is witnessed that the heat transfer rate, heat transfer coefficient, pump work, and irreversibility enhances with the flow rate and nanoparticle suspension. While the PI declines with a rise in the flow rate, the heat transfer rate, heat transfer coefficient, PI, and irreversibility rise up maximum for MgO–alumina (1:4) DI water HyNf upto 11.8%, 31.7%, 11.1%, and 4.05%, respectively. The pump work enhances upto 1.6% for MgO–alumina (1:4)/EG–DI water (1:9) HyNf.     

封闭腔内Al_2O_3-EG纳米流体自然对流传热特性的数值研究

对梯形封闭腔内Al2O3-EG纳米流体自然对流传热进行了数值模拟,讨论了封闭腔尺寸比、瑞利数、纳米颗粒体积分数以及布朗运动对自然对流流动与传热特性的影响。数值模拟结果表明在考虑布朗运动时,腔体尺寸比与瑞利数对流动传热均有很大影响,且尺寸比为0.5时,对流换热平均Nusselt数达到最大值。随着纳米颗粒体积分数的增加,纳米流体换热效果逐渐增强;但当忽略布朗运动时,添加纳米颗粒削弱了换热效果。     

A numerical study of heat transfer charcteristics of a car radiator involved nanofluids

To investigate the heat transfer characteristics of a car radiator involved nanofluids, we used GAMBIT & FLUENT softwares and calculated the effective physical parameters using some famous models as a single‐phase mixture. Carbon nanotubes and boron nitride nanotubes have been used in less than 1% volume concentration in flat and twisted tubes. Our results show that nanofluids application in a twisted tube gives a great enhancement in the thermal performance in comparison of the flat tube.     

MHD heat transfer and entropy production of an Al2O3-water nanofluid in a horizontal cylinder

This paper deals with the effect of magnetic fields (B_r, B_θ, B_z) applied in r-, θ-, z-directions, respectively, on entropy production and heat transfer and in a horizontal cylinder filled with an Al₂O₃-water nanofluid. The results are verified using literature data. For different Richardson, Ri, and Hartmann numbers, Ha, the nanoparticles (NP) ϕ, and magnetic field orientation combined effect provide a better understanding of heat transfer and entropy optimization. The results indicate that entropy production and heat transfer and rates depend on magnetic field intensity and direction. Also, increasing Ri and NP increases entropy generation and heat transfer. Finally, applying a radial magnetic field promotes a better convective heat transfer and minimizes entropy production.     

Experimental Investigation of Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient of Al2O3/Water–Mono Ethylene Glycol Nanofluids in an Automotive Radiator

In this research, the overall heat transfer coefficient of Al₂O₃/water–mono ethylene glycol (MEG) nanofluids is investigated experimentally in a car radiator under laminar flow conditions. The experimental rig developed is similar to the automotive cooling system. The stable nanofluid used is prepared by a two‐step method. Ultrasonication is done for proper dispersion of 20 nm Al₂O₃ nanoparticle in carrier fluid water and MEG mixture with 50:50 proportions by volume. The experimental study showed that use of a nanofluid enhances the overall heat transfer coefficient as compared to the base fluid. In this study as the nanoparticle volume fraction increases from 0% to 0.8%, the overall heat transfer coefficient also increases. It was observed that as the nanofluid inlet temperature increased from 65 °C to 85 °C, the overall heat transfer coefficient decreased. It was found that using a 0.2% volume fraction Al₂O₃/water–MEG nanofluid can enable a 36.69 % reduction in surface area of the radiator.     

The study of laminar convective heat transfer of CuO/water nanofluid through an equilateral triangular duct at constant wall heat flux

The present paper focuses on the heat transfer of an equilateral triangular duct by employing the CuO/water nanofluid in a laminar flow and under constant heat flux condition. The triangular ducts were used due to their ease of creation and high compaction. They have less pressure drop when compared to the circular and non‐circular ducts and their other attributes are very useful in industrial applications. These reasons cause their heat transfer characteristics to be very important. In this paper, to improve the heat transfer of an equilateral triangular duct, a CuO/water nanofluid was employed. The nanofluid was conducted through an equilateral triangular duct with a constant wall heat flux. Results show that the experimental heat transfer coefficient of the CuO/water nanofluid is more than that of distilled water. Also, the experimental heat transfer coefficient of a CuO/water nanofluid is greater than the theoretical one. The heat transfer enhancement of the equilateral triangular duct increases with the nanofluid volume concentration as well as the Peclet number. So a 41% enhancement in the convective heat transfer coefficient for a 0.8% CuO/water nanofluid can be seen when compared to pure water. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21011     

Experimental study of convective heat transfer and pressure drop of TiO2/water nanofluid

In this paper, an experimental study of convective heat transfer and pressure drop of turbulent flow of TiO₂-water nanofluid through a uniformly heated horizontal circular tube has been performed. The spherical TiO₂ nanoparticles with a nominal diameter of 15 nm are functionalized by a new chemical treatment and then dispersed in distilled water to form stable suspensions containing 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0% volume concentrations of nanoparticles. Results indicate that heat transfer coefficients increase with increasing the nanofluid volume fraction and it is not changed with altering the Reynolds number. The enhancement of the Nusselt number is about 8% for nanofluid with 2.0% nanoparticle volume fraction at Re = 11,800.     

Experimental and analytical investigation on an automobile radiator with CuO/EG‐water based nanofluid as coolant

In the present study, experimental and analytical thermal performance of automobile radiator using nanofluids is investigated and compared with performance obtained with conventional coolants. Effect of operating parameters and nanoparticle concentration on heat transfer rate are studied for water as well as CuO/EG‐water based nanofluid analytically. The results are presented in the form of graphs showing variations of net heat transfer rate for various coolant flow rate, air velocity, and source temperature for various CuO/EG‐water based nanofluids. Experimental results indicate that with the increase in coolant flow rate and air velocity, heat transfer rate increases, reaches maximum and then decreases. Experimental investigation of a radiator is carried out using CuO/EG‐water based nanofluids. Results obtained by experimental work and analytical MATLAB code are almost the same. Maximum absolute error in water and air side is within 12% for all flow condition and coolant fluids. Nusselt number of nanofluid is calculated using equation number 33[9]. The results obtained from experimental work using 0.2% volume CuO/EG‐water based nanofluids are compared with the results obtained from MATLAB code. The results show that the maximum error in the outlet temperature of the coolant and air is 12% in each case. Thus MATLAB code can be used for different concentration of nanofluids to study the effect of operating parameters on heat transfer rate. Thus MATLAB code developed is valid for given heat exchanger applications. From the results obtained by already validated MATLAB code, it is concluded that increase in coolant flow rate, air velocity, and source temperature increases the heat transfer rate. Addition of nanoparticles in the base fluid increases the heat transfer rate for all kind of base fluids. Among all the nanofluid analyzed in this study, water‐based nanofluid gives highest value of heat transfer rate and is recommended for the heat exchanger applications under normal operating conditions. Maximum enhancement is observed for ethylene glycol‐water (4:6) mixture for 1% volume concentration of CuO is almost equal to 20%. As heat transfer rate increases with the use of nanofluids, the heat transfer area of the radiator can be minimized.     

多孔泡沫内纳米流体非平衡传热及体积分数分布

研究了纳米流体在金属泡沫内的对流换热,建立了局部非热平衡数学模型,得到了金属泡沫内纳米流体速度、温度和纳米颗粒体积分数分布,分析了纳米流体和金属泡沫的强化换热效果。当使用纳米流体或在通道内填充金属泡沫时,截面速度和温度变得更均匀。随着纳米颗粒体积分数的增大,努塞尔数先增大然后又逐渐减小,即存在一个合适的体积分数能使换热效果达到最好;当金属泡沫孔隙率增加时努塞尔数也会减小,有利于换热的进行。纳米流体和金属泡沫对换热具有明显强化作用,但压降随纳米颗粒体积分数增大而急剧增大。此外,还考虑了布朗扩散和热泳扩散等因素的影响。     

On the evaluation of a finned annular tube in convective heat transfer performance in the presence of Ag/oil nanofluid for a constant thermal flux rate boundary condition

In the present empirical work, the effectiveness of a finned annular tube in the presence of Ag/oil nanofluid is investigated. An annular tube with axial fins was considered as the test case. Suspended Ag nanoparticles in different volume concentrations of 0.011%, 0.044%, and 0.176% were examined in this work. The setup was designed in a way to be sure that the flow is hydrodynamically fully developed along the tube. This experiment has been done in a laminar flow regime in which Reynolds number was less than 160 for all the studied cases. The finned annular tube was wrapped with a coil that satisfied the condition of a constant thermal flux rate of 204 W on the outer boundary. Based on the acquired data, the convective heat transfer coefficient was obtained for all the nanofluid cases and compared to the base fluid. It was observed that the convective heat transfer coefficient substantially rises by increasing the nanoparticles. Which for the best case (volume concentration of 0.171% and Reynolds number of about 160), this factor was about a 33% enhancement compared to the base fluid.     

Experimental study of exergetic performance of Al2O3 nanofluid in a double‐pipe heat exchanger fitted by a new modified twisted tape

The use of nanofluids and surface enhancers today are among the new technologies used to increase heat transfer. In this study, heat transfer phenomena in heat exchanger were investigated using Al₂O₃ nanoparticles and modified spiral band as flow turbulator. Results are verified with well‐known correlations. The results show that the tube with cross‐hollow twisted tape inserts has the best exergetic performance for different hollow widths of the tape. Clearance, which is defined as the width between the tube and twisted tape, also affects the heat transfer performance. The smaller the clearance, the better is the exergetic performance. The tube can achieve the best exergetic performance when the number of unilateral twisted tapes is four. The results showed that increasing nanofluid concentration improves exergetic performance.     

Experimental study of heat transfer enhancement using water/ethylene glycol based nanofluids as a new coolant for car radiators

Traditionally forced convection heat transfer in a car radiator is performed to cool circulating fluid which consisted of water or a mixture of water and anti-freezing materials like ethylene glycol (EG). In this paper, the heat transfer performance of pure water and pure EG has been compared with their binary mixtures. Furthermore, different amounts of Al₂O₃ nanoparticle have been added into these base fluids and its effects on the heat transfer performance of the car radiator have been determined experimentally. Liquid flow rate has been changed in the range of 2–6 l per minute and the fluid inlet temperature has been changed for all the experiments. The results demonstrate that nanofluids clearly enhance heat transfer compared to their own base fluid. In the best conditions, the heat transfer enhancement of about 40% compared to the base fluids has been recorded.     

An experimental investigation of forced convective cooling performance of a microchannel heat sink with Al2O3/water nanofluid

Experiments were conducted to investigate forced convective cooling performance of a copper microchannel heat sink with Al₂O₃/water nanofluid as the coolant. The microchannel heat sink fabricated consists of 25 parallel rectangular microchannels of length 50 mm with a cross-sectional area of 283 μm in width by 800 μm in height for each microchannel. Hydraulic and thermal performances of the nanofluid-cooled microchannel heat sink have been assessed from the results obtained for the friction factor, the pumping power, the averaged heat transfer coefficient, the thermal resistance, and the maximum wall temperature, with the Reynolds number ranging from 226 to 1676. Results show that the nanofluid-cooled heat sink outperforms the water-cooled one, having significantly higher average heat transfer coefficient and thereby markedly lower thermal resistance and wall temperature at high pumping power, in particular. Despite the marked increase in dynamic viscosity due to dispersing the alumina nanoparticles in water, the friction factor for the nanofluid-cooled heat sink was found slightly increased only.     

对流换热系数曲线拟合法的原理和应用

曲线拟合法是换热器传热性能实验中经常用到的一种方法，但传统的曲线拟合法存在较多的缺陷。所介绍的曲线拟合法限定条件较少，实用性强。对气体采用温度修正函数时，能够扩大该曲线拟合法适用的温度变化范围。当两侧的流体种类和流体通道相同时，其优点将更加明显。     

小型轴向槽道热管蒸发段换热系数的研究

通过试验的方法对直径为6 mm,长为210 mm的小型轴向槽道热管蒸发段换热系数进行研究,并得出计算模型。热管管内工作介质为水,蒸汽饱和温度分别为40、50和60℃。通过测定,得出在水平工作状况下,热管管内汽化换热系数受传输功率、温度差和饱和蒸气压的影响不大;汽化形式以蒸发为主;并且通过半理论分析和试验的方法得到在试验条件范围内,热管蒸发段换热系数基本稳定在30 500 W/(m2.℃)±25%。     

CFD analysis of a flat tube with semi-circular fins using graphene nanofluid and to compare performance with square type of fins

CFD analysis on a flat tube with semi-circular fins under laminar flow conditions was performed with graphene-based nanofluids considering the nanofluids as incompressible. Different simulations were performed at four different concentrations of nanofluids (0.01%, 0.1%, 0.2%, and 0.4%) and at different volume flow rates (4, 6, 8, and 10 LPM) and at four different forced convective heat transfer coefficients at different wind velocities at 300 K (50, 100, 150, and 200 W/m² K). It was observed that with an increase in the concentration of nanoparticles in nanofluids, the thermal conductivity of base fluid water was increased (at 353 K the nanofluid of 0.4% volume concentration, the thermal conductivity of nanofluid increased by 200% with respect to base fluid). Graphene-based nanofluids have higher effectiveness than most nanofluids hence it is considered for the analysis, at 0.4% concentration of nanofluid the effectiveness observed was 36.84% at 4 LPM, and for water, the effectiveness was 28.22% under similar conditions. The effect of flow rate on temperature drop was significant. At 4 LPM and at 0.4% of nanofluid, an outlet coolant temperature of 333 K was observed whereas the water outlet temperature at 10 LPM is 346.13 K. The effect of forced convective air heat transfer coefficient was significantly high. At h = 50 W/m² K the outlet temperature of 0.4% nanofluid at 4 LPM was 345.25 K and at h = 200 W/m² K, the outlet coolant temperature was 333.47 K. A single tube of the radiator was considered for the analysis whereas the original radiator consists of 50 tubes due to problems of Ansys in meshing.     

Efficiency and effectiveness enhancement of an intercooler of two‐stage air compressor by low‐cost Al2O3/water nanofluids

The present study was aimed to utilize low‐cost alumina (Al₂O₃) nanoparticles for improving the heat transfer behavior in an intercooler of two‐stage air compressor. Experimental investigation was carried out with three different volume concentrations of 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1.0% Al₂O₃/water nanofluids to assess the performance of the intercooler, that is, counterflow heat exchanger at different loads. Thermal properties such as thermal conductivity and overall heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid increased substantially with increasing concentration of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles. Specific heat capacity of nanofluids were lower than base water. The intercooler performance parameters such as effectiveness and efficiency improved appreciably with the employment of nanofluid. The efficiency increased by about 6.1% with maximum concentration of nanofluid, that is, 1% at 3‐bar compressor load. It is concluded from the study that high concentration of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles dispersion in water would offer better heat transfer performance of the intercooler.     

Experimental investigation of turbulent heat transfer and flow characteristics of SiO2/water nanofluid within helically corrugated tubes

Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of nanofluid on turbulent heat transfer and pressure drop inside concentric tubes. Water and SiO₂ with mean diameter of 30 nm were chosen as base fluid and nano-particles, respectively. Experiments were performed for plain tube and five roughened tube with various heights and pitches of corrugations. Results show that adding the nano-particles in tube with high height and small pitch of corrugations augments the heat transfer significantly with negligible pressure drop penalty. It is discussed on relative Nusselt number and thermal performance of heat exchanger.