Forced convection of Al2O3, Fe3O4, ND-Fe3O4, and (MWCNT-Fe3O4) mixtures in rectangular channels: Experimental and numerical results

Due to the growing needs of super coolant for industrial applications, in this article, we investigate experimentally as well as numerically the possible best heat transfer fluid. In this respect, we considered three nanofluids mixtures of Al2O3/water (concentrations of 0.2%vol and 0.3%vol) and 0.2%vol Fe3O4/water and 0.2%vol ND-Fe3O4/water, and a hybrid fluid of 0.3%vol MWCNT-Fe3O4 in water. First, we experiment with forced convection in three porous channels using two concentrations of 0.2 and 0.3%vol of Al2O3 nanofluid, respectively. We validated the experimental results with the numerically simulated data and confirmed satisfactory agreement among them. Second, using the numerical code, we predicted the performance of 0.2%vol Fe3O4 nanofluid, 0.2%vol (ND-Fe3O4) nanofluid, and a hybrid fluid of 0.3%vol (MWCNT(26%)-Fe3O4(74%)) for heat extraction. With such configuration, the usefulness of using the proposed nanofluid and hybrid fluid enlarge the knowledge for heat enhancement. Our experimental results show that 0.2%vol Al2O3 efficiently transfers heat compared to the 0.3%vol Al2O3. The simulated results show that 0.2%vol Fe3O4 nanofluid is the best fluid for heat extraction among the experimentally and numerically studied fluids.

Automated summary

This article investigates experimentally and numerically the best heat transfer fluid for industrial applications. The results suggest that the 0.2%vol Fe3O4 nanofluid is the most suitable fluid for heat extraction.