Numerical study on enhancement of convective heat transfer with water based Al2O3, CuO and Mgo nanofluids flowing through a tube

• Main Authors: Khan, Fayez, Taimoor, Imtiaz, Ali, Mohammad
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; Boundary conditions; Computational fluid dynamics; Conduction heating; Convective heat transfer; Copper oxides; Equilibrium flow; Fluid flow; Heat flux; Heat transfer; Heat transfer coefficients; Magnesium oxide; Nanofluids; Nanoparticles; Pipes; Reynolds number; Superconductors (materials); Temperature; Thermodynamic properties
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0037631

Nanofluid is a new category of heat transfer fluid that has been used in the research activities in the recent days. In the present study a numerical research was done to observe the thermal behavior of aluminum oxide-water, copper oxide-water and magnesium oxide-water nanofluids. These fluids were passed through a horizontal heated pipe under a steady state flow condition. The percentage of each of three nanoparticles was varied from 0.1% to 4% while mixing with the base fluid-water. For different percentages of nanofluid content the various properties of the nanofluid mixture varies. The velocity of the flow through the pipe was varied and expressed in terms of Reynolds number. To know the dominance of convective heat transfer over conduction Nusselt number was calculated for each of the cases. To know required heat energy, in terms of power is needed to change the temperature of the material by one degree Kelvin, heat transfer coefficient was also measured for each case. Heat transfer coefficient at various length of the heated pipe was numerically measured and found that the coefficient varies along the length. A uniform and constant heat flux was applied at the wall boundary conditions. The entire study sums up with the conclusion that the copper oxide performs the best for the enhancement of heat transfer and magnesium oxide performs lesser than the first one. Aluminum oxide performs the worst for the enhancement of heat transfer among all the three fluids.