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An experimental investigation on heat transfer enhancement in the laminar flow of water/TiO2 nanofluid through a tube heat exchanger fitted with modified butterfly inserts

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Abstract

Nanofluids are advanced heat transfer fluids that exhibit thermal properties superior than that of the conventional fluids such as water, oil etc. This paper reports the experimental study on convective heat transfer characteristics of water based titanium dioxide nanofluids in fully developed flow through a uniformly heated pipe heat exchanger fitted with modified butterfly inserts. Nanofluids are prepared by dispersing TiO2 nanoparticles of average particle size 29 nm in deionized water. The heat transfer experiments are performed in laminar regime using nanofluids prepared with 0.1% and 0.3% volume fractions of TiO2 nanoparticles. The thermal performance characteristics of conventional butterfly inserts and modified butterfly inserts are also compared using TiO2 nanofluid. The inserts with different pitches 6 cm, 9 cm and 12 cm are tested to determine the effect of pitch distance of inserts in the heat transfer and friction. The experimental results showed that the modification made in the butterfly inserts were able to produce higher heat transfer than conventional butterfly inserts.

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Abbreviations

A:

Cross sectional Area (m2)

cp :

Specific heat (J/kg-K)

D:

Test section diameter (m)

f:

Friction factor

h:

Convection heat transfer coefficient (W/m2-K)

k:

Thermal conductivity (W/m-K)

m:

Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Nu:

Nusselt number

p:

pitch distance (m)

q:

Actual heat flux (W/m2)

S:

Surface area (m2)

v:

Fluid velocity (m/s)

Re:

Reynolds number

W:

Weight (kg)

x:

Axial distance from the tube entrance (m)

μ:

Dynamic viscosity (N-s/m2)

ρ:

Density (kg/m3)

φ:

Volume concentration (%)

∆p:

Pressure drop (N/m2)

η:

Thermal Performance Factor

f:

Base Fluid

in:

Inlet

nf:

Nanofluid

out:

Outlet

w:

Wall

pt:

Plain tube

p:

Particle

t:

Total

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank TEQIP-II, a World Bank Project of MHRD, and Government of India for its financial support provided for establishing the necessary infrastructure to execute this experimental work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India

    K. P. Venkitaraj & S. Suresh

  2. College of Engineering, Adoor, Kerala, India

    K. P. Venkitaraj, T. Alwin Mathew, B. S. Bibin & Jisa Abraham

Authors
  1. K. P. Venkitaraj
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  2. S. Suresh
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  3. T. Alwin Mathew
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  4. B. S. Bibin
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Correspondence to S. Suresh.

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Venkitaraj, K.P., Suresh, S., Alwin Mathew, T. et al. An experimental investigation on heat transfer enhancement in the laminar flow of water/TiO2 nanofluid through a tube heat exchanger fitted with modified butterfly inserts. Heat Mass Transfer 54, 813–829 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-017-2174-5

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