Experimental studies on heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of CuO/water nanofluid under laminar flow in a helically dimpled tube

An experimental investigation on the convective heat transfer and friction factor characteristics in the plain and dimpled tube under laminar flow with constant heat flux is carried out with distilled water and CuO/water nanofluids. For this, CuO nanoparticles with an average size of 15.3 nm were synthesized by sol–gel method. The nanoparticles are then dispersed in distilled water to form stable suspension of CuO/water nanofluid containing 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3% volume concentration of nanoparticles. It is found that the experimental Nusselt numbers for 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3% volume concentration of CuO nanoparticles are about 6, 9.9 and 12.6%, respectively higher than those obtained with distilled water in plain tube. However, the experimental Nusselt numbers for 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3% volume concentration of CuO nanoparticles are about 3.4, 6.8 and 12%, respectively higher than those obtained with distilled water in dimpled tube. The friction factor of CuO/water nanofluid is also increased due to the inclusion of nanoparticles and found to increase with nanoparticle volume concentration. The experimental results show that there exists a difference in the enhancement levels of Nusselt numbers obtained with nanofluids in plain tube and dimpled tube. Hence it is proposed that the mechanism of heat transfer enhancement obtained with nanofluids is due to particle migration from the core of fluid flow to tube wall.     

Experimental studies on heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of Al2O3/water nanofluid in a circular pipe under laminar flow with wire coil inserts

In this paper, fully developed laminar flow convective heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of Al₂O₃/water nanofluid flowing through a uniformly heated horizontal tube with and without wire coil inserts is presented. For this purpose, Al₂O₃ nanoparticles of 43 nm size were synthesized, characterized and dispersed in distilled water to form stable suspension containing 0.1% volume concentration of nanoparticles. The Nusselt number in the fully developed region were measured and found to increase by 12.24% at Re = 2275 for plain tube with nanofluid compared to distilled water. Two wire coil inserts made of stainless steel with pitch ratios 2 and 3 were used which increased the Nusselt numbers by 15.91% and 21.53% respectively at Re = 2275 with nanofluid compared to distilled water. The better heat transfer performance of nanofluid with wire coil insert is attributed to the effects of dispersion or back-mixing which flattens the temperature distribution and make the temperature gradient between the fluid and wall steeper. The measured pressure loss with the use of nanofluids is almost equal to that of the distilled water. The empirical correlations developed for Nusselt number and friction factor in terms of Reynolds/Peclet number, pitch ratio and volume concentration fits with the experimental data within ±15%.     

Studies on heat transfer in flow of silver nanofluid through a straight tube with twisted tape inserts

Convective heat transfer in the flow of silver nanofluid through a straight tube with twisted tape inserts was investigated experimentally. This straight tube was used as absorber/receiver tube in parabolic trough collector. The experiments were conducted for Reynolds number range 500 < Re < 6000 with twisted tape inserts of different twist ratio range 0.577 < H/D < 1.732. This experimental study shows that twisted tape inserts enhances heat transfer rate in the tube. The heat transfer coefficient and friction factor in the flow of silver nanofliud with 5 % volume fraction (concentration) are higher compared to the flow of water. From this study, Nusselt number, friction factor and enhancement factor are found as 2.0–3.0 times, 10–48.5 and 135–175 %, respectively with silver nanofliud. Finally new possible correlations for predicting heat transfer and friction factor in the flow of silver nanofliud through the straight tube with twisted tape inserts are proposed.     

Experimental study of ethylene glycol-based Al2O3 nanofluid turbulent heat transfer enhancement in the corrugated tube with twisted tapes

In this study, fluid flow of the Al₂O₃/ethylene glycol (EG) nanofluid in a corrugated tube fitted with twisted tapes were experimentally studied under turbulent flow conditions. The experiments with different twists ratio and different nanofluid concentration were performed under similar operation condition. The investigated ranges are (1) three different Al₂O₃ concentrations: 0.5, 1 and 1.5 % by volume (2) three different twist ratios of twisted tape: y/w = 2, 3.6 and 5 and (3) Reynolds number from 6000 to 30,000. Regarding the experimental data, utilization of twists together with nanofluids tends to increase heat transfer and friction factor as compared with the base fluid. In addition, heat transfer performances were weakened by using for high nanoparticle concentration. The thermal performances of the heat exchanger with nanofluid and twisted tapes were evaluated for the assessment of overall improvement in thermal behavior. Over the range studied, the maximum thermal performance factor 4.2 is found with the use of Al₂O₃/EG nanofluid at concentration of 0.5 % by volume in corrugated tube together with twisted tape at twist ratio of 2.     

Convective heat transfer of nanofluids with correlations

To investigate the convective heat transfer of nanofluids, experiments were performed using silver–water nanofluids under laminar, transition and turbulent flow regimes in a horizontal 4.3 mm inner-diameter tube-in-tube counter-current heat transfer test section. The volume concentration of the nanoparticles varied from 0.3% to 0.9% in steps of 0.3%, and the effects of thermo-physical properties, inlet temperature, volume concentration, and mass flow rate on heat transfer coefficient were investigated. Experiments showed that the suspended nanoparticles remarkably increased the convective heat transfer coefficient, by as much as 28.7% and 69.3% for 0.3% and 0.9% of silver content, respectively. Based on the experimental results a correlation was developed to predict the Nusselt number of the silver–water nanofluid, with ±10% agreement between experiments and prediction.     

Numerical investigation of turbulent flow,heat transfer and entropy generation in a helical coiled tube with larger curvature ratio

Three-dimensional turbulent forced convective heat transfer and flow characteristics, and the non-dimensional entropy generation number in a helical coiled tube subjected to uniform wall temperature are simulated using the k–ε standard turbulence model. A finite volume method is employed to solve the governing equations. The effects of Reynolds number, curvature ratio, and coil pitch on the average friction factor and Nusselt number are discussed. The results presented in this paper cover a Reynolds number range of 2 × 10⁴ to 6 × 10⁴, a pitch range of 0.1–0.2 and a curvature ratio range of 0.1–0.3. The results show that the coil pitch, curvature ratio and Reynolds number have different effects on the average friction factor and Nusselt number at different cross-sections. In addition, the flow and heat transfer characteristics in a helical coiled tube with a larger curvature ratio for turbulent flow are different from that of smaller curvature ratio for laminar and turbulent flow in certain ways. Some new features that are not obtained in previous researches are revealed. Moreover, the effects of Reynolds number, curvature ratio, and coil pitch on the non-dimensional entropy generation number of turbulent forced convection in a helical coiled tube are also discussed.     

Experimental investigation of TiO2/water nanofluid laminar forced convective heat transfer through helical coiled tube

Coiled tubes and nanofludics are two significant techniques to enhance the heat transfer ability of thermal equipments. The forced convective heat transfer and the pressure drop of nanofluid inside straight tube and helical coiled one with a constant wall heat flux were studied experimentally. Distilled water was used as a host fluid and Nanofluids of aqueous TiO₂ nanoparticles (50 nm) suspensions were prepared in various volume concentrations of 0.25–2 %. The heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids is obtained for different nanoparticle concentrations as well as various Reynolds numbers. The experiments covered a range of Reynolds number of 500–4,500. The results show the considerable enhancement of heat transfer rate, which is due to the nanoparticles present in the fluid. Heat transfer coefficient increases by increasing the volume concentration of nanoparticles as well as Reynolds number. Moreover, due to the curvature of the tube when fluid flows inside helical coiled tube instead of straight one, both convective heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop of fluid grow considerably. Also, the thermal performance factors for tested nanofluids are greater than unity and the maximum thermal performance factor of 3.72 is found with the use of 2.0 % volume concentration of nanofluid at Reynolds number of 1,750.     

Pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of turbulent flow in annular tubes with internal wave-like longitudinal fins

Measured were pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics with uniform axial heat input using air as the working fluid in both the entrance and fully developed regions of annular tubes with wave-like longitudinal fins. Five series of experiments were performed for turbulent flow and heat transfer in the annular tubes with number of waves equal to 4, 8, 12, 16 and 20, respectively. The test tube has a double-pipe structure with the inner blocked tubes as an insertion. The wave-like fins are in the annulus and span its full width. The friction factor and Nusselt number in the fully developed region were obtained. The friction factor and Nusselt number can be well corrected by a power-law correction in the Reynolds number range tested. In order to evaluate the thermal performance of the longitudinal finned tubes over a plain circular tube, comparisons were made under three conditions: (1) identical pumping power; (2) identical pressure drop and (3) identical mass flow. It was found that under the three constraints all the wave-like finned tubes can enhance heat transfer with the tube with wave number 20 being superior. Finally, discussion on the enhancement mechanism is conducted and a general correlation for the fully developed heat transfer is provided, which can cover all the fifty data of the five tubes with a mean deviation of 9.3%.     

Lattice Boltzmann simulation of heat transfer and fluid flow in a microchannel with nanofluids

Mathematical modeling is performed to simulate forced convection flow of 47 nm- Al₂O₃/water nanofluids in a microchannel using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Single channel flow and conjugate heat transfer problem are taken into consideration and the heat transfer rate using a nanofluid is examined. Simulations are conducted at low Reynolds numbers (2 ≤ Re ≤ 16). The computed average Nusselt number, which is associated with the thermal conductivity of nanofluid, is in the range of 0.6 ￡ [`(Nu)] ￡ 13 0.6 \le \overline{Nu} \le 13 . Results indicate that the average Nusselt number increases with the increase of Reynolds number and particle volume concentration. The fluid temperature distribution is more uniform with the use of nanofluid than that of pure water. Furthermore, great deviations of computed Nusselt numbers using different models associated with the physical properties of a nanofluid are revealed. The results of LBM agree well with the classical CFD method for predictions of flow and heat transfer in a single channel and a microchannel heat sink concerning the conjugate heat transfer problem, and consequently LBM is robust and promising for practical applications.     

Flow and heat transfer in a pipe with a fin attached to inner wall

Enhancement of heat transfer to the fluid can be done by turbulence promoters such as attached fins to the pipe walls. In this study, the flow field and the heat transfer rates were numerically investigated in a pipe with an internally attached fin. Numerical simulations were conducted for four different types of fluids and for different fin heights and locations, and as the Reynolds number was varied, the effects of the fin on Nusselt number and friction factors were investigated. For all the Reynolds numbers considered in this study, the effect of fin location on the heat transfer rate and friction factor was negligible. As the fin height was increased, the mean Nusselt number and the friction factor also increased in the turbulent flow regimes. For low Prandtl number fluids (Pr = 0.011), the main heat transfer mode is conduction, and hence the mean Nusselt number slightly affected the flow rates.     

Turbulent forced convection heat transfer of non-Newtonian nanofluids

Forced convection heat transfer of non-Newtonian nanofluids in a circular tube with constant wall temperature under turbulent flow conditions was investigated experimentally. Three types of nanofluids were prepared by dispersing homogeneously γ-Al₂O₃, TiO₂ and CuO nanoparticles into the base fluid. An aqueous solution of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) was used as the base fluid. Nanofluids as well as the base fluid show shear-thinning (pseudoplastic) rheological behavior. Results indicate that the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids is higher than that of the base fluid. The enhancement of the convective heat transfer coefficient increases with an increase in the Peclet number and the nanoparticle concentration. The increase in the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids is greater than the increase that would be observed considering strictly the increase in the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids. Experimental data were compared to heat transfer coefficients predicted using available correlations for purely viscous non-Newtonian fluids. Results show poor agreement between experimental and predicted values. New correlation was proposed to predict successfully Nusselt numbers of non-Newtonian nanofluids as a function of Reynolds and Prandtl numbers.     

Turbulent forced convection of nanofluid in a wavy channel using two phase model

Two phase mixture model is used to numerically simulate the turbulent forced convection of Al₂O₃-Water nanofluid in a channel with corrugated wall under constant heat flux. Both mixture and single phase models are implemented to study the nanofluid flow in such a geometry and the results have been compared. The effects of the volume fraction of nanoparticles, Reynolds number and amplitude of the wavy wall on the rate of heat transfer are investigated. The results showed that with increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles, Reynolds number and amplitude of wall waves, the rate of heat transfer increases. Also the results showed that the mixture model yields to higher Nusselt numbers than the single phase model in a similar case.     

Heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of turbulent flow in a circular tube fitted with regularly spaced twisted-tape elements

The results of an experimentalnvestigation of turbulent flow heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics in a circular tube fitted with regularly spaced twisted-tape elements connected by thin circular rods are reported. The characteristics are governed by Reynolds number, Prandtl number, twist ratio, space ratio, and rod-to-tube diameter ratio. Correlations for friction factor and Nusselt number are also reported. It is shown that on the basis of both constant pumping power and constant heat duty, regularly spaced twisted-tape elements do not perform better than full-length twisted tapes.     

Experimental study on the pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of tubes with internal wave-like longitudinal fins

Experiments were performed to determine the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics in the entrance and fully developed regions of tubes with internal wave-like longitudinal fins. The test tube has a double-pipe structure, with the inner tube as an insertion. The wave-like fins are in the annulus and span its full width. Experiments were conducted for two cases: one with the inner tube blocked (no air flowing through it) and the other with the inner tube unblocked. The outer tube was electrically heated. Local and average heat transfer coefficients and friction factors were measured. The friction factor and Nusselt number correlations in the fully developed region were obtained in the Reynolds number range of 9×10² to 3.5×10³. It has been found that the wave-like fins enhance heat transfer significantly with the blocked case being superior. In addition, the in-tube heat transfer process is characterized by an earlier transition from laminar to turbulent flow and Reynolds number-dependent thermal entrance length. Received on 12 May 1998     

Experimental evaluation of cooling performance of circular heat sinks for heat dissipation from electronic chips using nanofluid

In this work, an experimental investigation on cooling performance of using nanofluid to replace the pure water as the coolant in a minichannel heat sink is conducted. The heat sink comprises of four circular channels with hydraulic diameter of 6 mm. Thermal and hydraulic performances of the nanofluid cooled minichannel heat sink are evaluated from the results obtained for the Nusselt number, friction factor, thermal resistance and pumping power, with the volume flow rate ranging from 0.3 to 1.5 L/min. The experimental results show that the nanofluid cooled heat sink outperforms the water-cooled one, having significantly higher average heat transfer coefficient. Despite the marked increase in dynamic viscosity due to dispersing the nanoparticles in water, the friction factor for the nanofluid-cooled heat sink is found slightly increased only.     

Laboratory investigation and commercial test for rotors-assembled strand applied in smooth tube

In the commercial test for smooth tube inserted with rotors-assembled strand comparing with non-inserted ones on condensers in electric power plant, using water as working fluid, the single-phase pressure drop and heat transfer were measured. It was found difficult to receive reliable and accurate enough data through commercial test. Meanwhile, the single-phase pressure drop and heat transfer in a rotors-assembled strand inserted tube were measured in laboratory, with the tube side Prandtl numbers varying from 5.67 to 5.80 and the tube side Reynolds numbers varying from 21,300 to 72,200. Before that, a validation experiment based on the same smooth tube was carried out to testify the experimental system and the data reduction method, in which fixed mounts were employed to eliminate entrance effects. The Prandtl numbers varied from 5.64 to 5.76 and the Reynolds numbers varied from 19,000 to 56,000 in the tube. The annular side Reynolds numbers remained nearly constant at the value of around 50,000 for all experiments, with the annular side Prandtl numbers varying from 8.02 to 8.22. The experimental results of smooth tube show that employment of fixed mounts leads to a visible bias of friction factor at relative low Reynolds numbers while it hardly affects the Nusselt numbers. On the other hand, experiment for the tube inserted with rotors-assembled strand show remarkable improvement for heat transfer with the Nusselt number increased by 9.764–11.87% and the overall heat transfer coefficient increased by 7.08–7.49% within the range of Reynolds number from about 21,300 to 55,500. Meanwhile, friction factor increases inevitably by 278.1–353.9% within the same range of Reynolds number. Based on through multivariant linear normal regression method, the Reynolds number and Prandtl number dependencies of the Nusselt number and friction factor were determined to be Nu = 0.0031Re^0.9Pr^1.0849 and f = 0.993Re^−0.22.     

Analytical considerations of flow/thermal coupling of nanofluids in foam metals with local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) phenomena and inhomogeneous nanoparticle distribution

Foam metals with micro pores own excellent thermal performance, however, poor heat conductive ability of most heat-transfer fluids restricts further heat transfer improvement. Combination of foam metal and nanofluid with highly conductive nanoparticles is a promising solution. Convective thermal characteristics of nanofluids in porous foams are theoretically investigated in this work. Effects of Brownian motion and thermophoretic diffusion of nanoparticles in the base fluid on thermal performance are considered. The nanoparticle and the base-fluid are considered to be in thermal equilibrium and the temperature difference between the nanofluid and foam ligaments is especially considered. Compared with the base-fluid flow in a duct, the velocity distribution for the nanofluid flow in a porous foam is more uniform with a decreased dimensionless temperature. The pressure drop of the nanofluid increases with an increase in the concentration of the nanoparticles. By employing foam metals and nanofluid, the cross-sectional temperature becomes closer to the wall temperature. Simultaneously, notable difference between solid and fluid temperatures can be observed, revealing the LTNE effect of the nanofluid on the porous foam. It is found that the Nusselt number first increases and then decreases with an increase in nanoparticle concentration. Furthermore, the Nusselt number decreases with an increase in the foam porosity. It is found that the thermal performance of a nanofluid in a plain tube is different from that in the foam metals.     

Groove geometry effects on turbulent heat transfer and fluid flow

The present work represents a two-dimensional numerical prediction of forced turbulent flow heat transfer through a grooved tube. Four geometric groove shapes (circular, rectangular, trapezoidal and triangular) were selected to perform the study, as well as two aspect ratios of groove-depth to tube diameter (e/D = 0.1 and 0.2). The study focuses on the influence of the geometrical shapes of grooves and groove-depth on heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics for Reynolds number ranging from 10,000 to 20,000. The characteristics of Nusselt number, friction factor and entropy generation are studied numerically by the aid of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) commercial code of FLUENT. It is observed that the best performance occurs with the lower depth-groove ratio, whereas it is found that the grooved tube provides a considerable increase in heat transfer at about 64.4 % over the smooth tube and a maximum gain of 1.52 on thermal performance factor is obtained for the triangular groove with (e/D = 0.1).     

An experimental investigation of heat transfer to pulsating pipe air flow with different amplitudes

Heat transfer characteristics to both laminar and turbulent pulsating pipe flows under different conditions of Reynolds number, pulsation frequency, pulsator location and tube diameter were experimentally investigated. The tube wall of uniform heat flux condition was considered for both cases. Reynolds number varied from 750 to 12,320 while the frequency of pulsation ranged from 1 to 10 Hz. With locating the pulsator upstream of the inlet of the test section tube, results showed an increase in heat transfer rate due to pulsation by as much as 30% with flow Reynolds number of 1,643 and pulsation frequency of 1 Hz, depending on the upstream location of the pulsator valve. Closer the valve to the tested section inlet, the better improvement in the heat transfer coefficient is achieved. Upon comparing the heat transfer results of the upstream and the downstream pulsation, at Reynolds number of 1,366 and 1,643, low values of the relative mean Nusselt number were obtained with the upstream pulsation. Comparing the heat transfer results of the two studied test sections tubes for Reynolds number range from 8,000 to 12,000 and pulsation frequency range from 1.0 to 10 Hz showed that more improvement in heat transfer rate was observed with a larger tube diameter. For Reynolds number ranging from 8,000 to 12,000 and pulsation frequency of 10 Hz, an improvement in the relative mean Nusselt number of about 50% was obtained at Reynolds number of 8,000 for the large test section diameter of 50 mm. While, for the small test section diameter of 15 mm, at same conditions of Reynolds number and frequency, a reduction in the relative mean Nusselt number of up to 10% was obtained.     

Nanofluids thermal behavior analysis using a new dispersion model along with single-phase

A numerical study has been performed to analyze nanofluids convective heat transfer. Laminar α-Al₂O₃-water nanofluid flows in an entrance region of a horizontal circular tube with constant surface temperature. Numerical analysis has been carried out using two different single-phase models (homogenous and dispersion) and two-phase models (Eulerian–Lagrangian and mixture). A new model is developed to consider the nanoparticles dispersion. The transport equations for the tube with constant surface temperature were solved numerically using a control volume approach. The effects of nanoparticles volume fraction (0.5, 1 %) and Reynolds number (650 ≤ Re ≤ 2300) on nanofluid convective heat transfer coefficient were studied. The results are compared with the experimental data and it is shown that the homogenous single-phase model is underestimated and the mixture model is overestimated. Although the Eulerian–Lagrangian model gives a reasonable prediction for the thermal behavior of nanofluids, the dispersion single-phase model gives more accurate prediction despite its simplicity.