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Investigating the thermal performance of different nanofluids in a metal foam tube under laminar flow regime

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Abstract

Porous structures, owning a high specific surface area, are widely employed in the industry. Microporous metal foams have high thermal performance, and their combination with nanoparticles is a genuine solution to increase heat transfer. This numerical study aims to inspect laminar flow characteristics and heat transfer of water-based nanofluids through a horizontal circular tube filled with metal foam under constant heat flux. Four nanoparticles, including NiO, Ag, SiO2 and TiO2, have been studied, and the effect of the volume fraction, Reynolds number, porosity and pores per inch on the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop has been investigated. The highest Nusselt numbers, at 0.8% porosity, 1% concentration of nanofluid and a Reynolds number of 1000, are 16.27, 16.03, 16.47 and 16.39 for NiO, Ag, SiO22 and TiO2, respectively. The results show that, in all cases, the highest Nusselt number corresponds to the SiO2, TiO, NiO and Ag nanofluids, respectively. The pore per inch has the greatest effect on the pressure drop, and its change from 5 to 60 increases the pressure drop by about 125 times.

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Abbreviations

a :

Specific surface area [m−2]

C B :

Boltzmann's constant [1.38066 × 10–23 J K−1]

C p :

Specific heat [J kg−1 K−1]

d :

Particle diameter [nm]

d f :

Diameter of the fiber of metal foam [mm]

d p :

Pore size [mm]

f :

Friction factor

h :

Heat transfer coefficient [W m−2 K−1]

k :

Thermal conductivity [W m−1 K−1]

k eff :

Effective thermal conductivity [W m−1 K−1]

K :

Permeability [m2]

L :

Tube length [m]

M :

Molecular weight

n :

Number of samples

N :

Avogadro number [6.022 × 1023 mol−1]

Nu:

Nusselt number

p :

Pressure [Pa]

PPI:

Pore per inch

Q w :

Wall heat flux [W m−2]

Re:

Reynolds number

Red :

Local Reynolds number

T :

Temperature [K]

U :

Velocity at x-axis [m s−1]

uB:

Mean Brownian velocity of nanoparticle[m s−1]

b:

Bulk

bf:

Base fluid

eff:

Effective property

exp:

Experimental

f:

Fluid

in:

Inlet

nf:

Nanofluid

np:

Nanoparticle

ref:

Reference state

s:

Solid

sim:

Simulation

w:

Wall

ε :

Porosity

μ :

Dynamic viscosity [kg m−1 s−1]

ρ :

Density [kg m−3]

φ :

Volume fraction

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Fallah Barzoki

  2. Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Mehrnoosh Rahmani, Ali Shahabi Nejad & Alibakhsh Kasaeian

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  1. Mohammad Fallah Barzoki
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  2. Mehrnoosh Rahmani
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Correspondence to Alibakhsh Kasaeian.

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Fallah Barzoki, M., Rahmani, M., Shahabi Nejad, A. et al. Investigating the thermal performance of different nanofluids in a metal foam tube under laminar flow regime. J Therm Anal Calorim 148, 12947–12959 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-023-12553-y

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