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Comparative study of turbulent heat transfer of nanofluids

Effect of thermophysical properties on figure-of-merit ratio

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Abstract

Nanofluids are considered to offer important advantages over conventional heat transfer fluids, but their thermophysical properties are not known precisely. In this paper, essential aspects of the turbulent-flow convective heat transfer of nanofluids are compared in detail based on few figures of merits relevant to their applications. The considered aspects were: (1) model selection—the nanofluid thermophysical properties (related to heat transfer performance) and the comparison criteria over their base fluids, and (2) effectiveness—the enhancement of the heat transfer coefficients of nanofluids over their base fluids. Few different models selected from the literature are used to express nanofluid properties in terms of particle loading, and they lead to different results in a classical problem of replacement of a single fluid by a nanofluid in a given application. As the base of comparison, the pumping power similarity condition was adopted, and the analysis revealed that nanofluid benefits in terms of energy performance are questionable, even if the heat transfer enhancement is obvious. Finally, this study aims to quantify the accuracy of existing models for nanofluid evaluation. The results reported in the present paper are believed to be useful for the thermal optimization of nanofluid flow inside tubes.

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Abbreviations

c p :

Specific heat (J kg−1 K−1)

D :

Hydraulic diameter (m)

f :

Fanning friction factor (–)

FOM1:

Figure of merit adopted from Ref. [43] (–)

FOM2:

Figure of merit adopted from Ref. [24] (–)

h :

Heat transfer coefficient (W m−2 K−1)

k :

Thermal conductivity (W m−1 K−1)

L :

Channel length (m)

Mo :

Mouromtseff number (–)

Nu :

Nusselt number (–)

p :

Pressure (Pa)

P :

Pumping power (W)

R :

Figure-of-merit ratio (–)

Pr :

Prandtl number (–)

Re :

Reynolds number (–)

T :

Temperature (K)

q :

Wall heat flux (W m−2)

Q :

Volume flow rate (W)

x, y, z :

Cartesian coordinates (m)

v :

Velocity (m s−1)

β :

Volumetric expansion coefficient (K−1)

φ :

Volume fraction of particles (%)

ρ :

Density (kg m−3)

μ :

Fluid dynamic viscosity (kg m−1 s−1)

bf:

Refers to base fluid

f:

Fluid

nf:

Refers to nanofluid property

r:

Refers to “nanofluid/base fluid” ratio

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  1. Technical University “Gheorghe Asachi” from Iasi, Romania, Bd. D. Mangeron no. 60, 700050, Iasi, Romania

    Alina Adriana Minea

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Minea, A.A. Comparative study of turbulent heat transfer of nanofluids. J Therm Anal Calorim 124, 407–416 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-015-5166-z

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