Experimental investigation of forced convective heat transfer coefficient in nanofluids of Al2O3/EG and CuO/EG in a double pipe and plate heat exchangers under turbulent flow

Nanofluid is the term applied to a suspension of solid, nanometer-sized particles in conventional fluids; the most prominent features of such fluids include enhanced heat characteristics, such as convective heat transfer coefficient, in comparison to the base fluid without considerable alterations in physical and chemical properties. In this study, nanofluids of aluminum oxide and copper oxide were prepared in ethylene glycol separately. The effect of forced convective heat transfer coefficient in turbulent flow was calculated using a double pipe and plate heat exchangers. Furthermore, we calculated the forced convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids using theoretical correlations in order to compare the results with the experimental data. We also evaluated the effects of particle concentration and operating temperature on the forced convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids. The findings indicate considerable enhancement in convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids as compared to the base fluid, ranging from 2% to 50%. Moreover, the results indicate that with increasing nanoparticles concentration and nanofluid temperature, the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid increases. Our experiments revealed that in lower temperatures, the theoretical and experimental findings coincide: however, in higher temperatures and with increased concentrations of the nanoparticles in ethylene glycol, the two set of results tend to have growing discrepancies. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.