Experimental investigation of turbulent convective heat transfer of dilute γ-Al2O3/water nanofluid inside a circular tube

Turbulent convective heat transfer and pressure drop of gamma-Al2O3/water nanofluid inside a circular tube were investigated experimentally. The volume fraction of nanoparticles in base fluid was less than 0.2%. Results indicated that addition of small amounts of nanoparticles to the base fluid augmented heat transfer remarkably. Increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles in the range studied in this work did not show much effect on heat transfer enhancement. Measurements showed that pressure drop for the dilute nanofluid was much greater than that of the base fluid. Experimental results were compared with existing correlations for nanofluid convective heat transfer coefficient in turbulent regime. (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.