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Numerical Study of Turbulent Nanofluid Flow in Double-Tube Heat Exchanger: The Role of Second Law Analysis

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Abstract

In this paper flow features and heat transfer characteristics of finned and finless double-tube counter flow heat exchanger at wide range of Reynolds numbers were numerically analyzed. Various fins configurations combined with use of water-based TiO2 nanofluid at different nanoparticles volume concentrations were employed in this study to show their effects on nanofluid Nusselt number, friction factor and thermal performance index. Furthermore, the thermal perfection and the overall assessment of heat exchanger were also taken into account in the light of thermodynamics second law efficiency which is defined as a ratio of recovered to expended exergy. The results showed that thermo-hydrodynamical performance of heat exchanger was intensively dependent to the thickness of embedded fins. Employed sensitivity analysis revealed that fins with large thicknesses equal or larger than 10 mm provide better thermal performance than fins with small thicknesses (i.e. t = 1 mm). Furthermore, the use of circular fin with thickness as large as 10 mm at the highest Reynolds number up to about 87,500 led to pronounce both Nusselt number and flow resistance up to 15% and 4.64 folds, respectively. On the other hand, using smooth heat exchanger operating at the lowest Reynolds number (i.e. Re = 3400) filled with 1% TiO2 water-based nanofluid led to obtain the highest recovered exergy and thermodynamic second law efficiency up to 0.46 W and 10.33%, respectively.

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Abbreviations

A :

Heat transfer surface area (m2)

C 2 :

Model constant

C p :

Specific heat at constant pressure \((\frac{\mathrm{J}}{\mathrm{kg K}})\)

\({C}_{\mu }\) :

Model parameter

D :

Tube diameter (m)

D h :

Hydraulic diameter (m)

f :

Friction factor

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K), fin height (m)

k :

Turbulent kinetic energy (m2/s2), thermal conductivity (W/mK)

k b :

Boltzmann number

L :

Length of tube (m)

\(\dot{m}\) :

Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Nu :

Nusselt number (hDh/K)

p :

Pressure (Pa)

Pr :

Prandtl number \(\left({C}_{p}\mu /\mathrm{K}\right)\)

q :

Heat flux (W/m2)

Q :

Heat transfer rate (W)

Re :

Reynolds number \((\rho u{D}_{h}/\mu )\)

S :

Fin spacing (m)

s :

Specific entropy \((\frac{\mathrm{J}}{\mathrm{K}})\)

t :

Fin thickness (m)

T :

Temperature (K)

u :

Velocity component in flow direction (m/s)

W :

Work (J)

Y + :

Dimensionless distance from wall

\(\Delta\) :

Difference operator

\({\delta }_{ij}\) :

Delta Kronecker

\(\varepsilon\) :

Turbulent dissipation rate, m2/s3

\(\mu\) :

Dynamic viscosity, kg/m s

\(\rho\) :

Density, kg/m3

\(\alpha\) :

Thermal diffusivity (m2/s)

\(\nu\) :

Kinematic viscosity (m2/s), specific volume (1/m3)

\({\sigma }_{\tau }\) :

Turbulent Prandtl number in energy equation

\({\sigma }_{k}\) :

Diffusion Prandtl number for \(k\)

\({\sigma }_{\varepsilon }\) :

Diffusion Prandtl number for \(\varepsilon\)

\(\mathrm{\varnothing }\) :

Nanoparticles volume concentration

\(\psi\) :

Specific flow exergy

\(\dot{X}\) :

Exergy rate

\({\eta }_{\mathrm{\rm I}\mathrm{\rm I}}\) :

Second law efficiency

\({\eta }_{\mathrm{t}-\mathrm{h}}\) :

Thermo-hydrodynamical performance index

ave:

Average

hw:

Hot water

b:

Bulk quantity

bf:

Base fluid

fr:

Freezing

in:

Inlet

IT:

Inner tube

\(i,j,k\) :

Spatial indices

m:

Mean value

nf:

Nanofluid

out:

Outlet

p:

Nanoparticle

s:

Smooth, surface area

t:

Turbulent quantity

t-h:

Thermo-hydrodynamic

w:

Wall

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

UDF:

User-defined function

DTCHEX:

Double-tube counter flow heat exchanger

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Islamic Azad University-Nour Branch, Nour, Iran

    Morteza Mohammadi

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Mohammadi, M. Numerical Study of Turbulent Nanofluid Flow in Double-Tube Heat Exchanger: The Role of Second Law Analysis. Arab J Sci Eng 48, 12269–12290 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-023-07732-w

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