Al/oil nanofluids inside annular tube: an experimental study on convective heat transfer and pressure drop

Abstract

In this work, an experimental study on nanofluid preparation stability, thermo-physical properties, heat transfer performance and friction factor of Al/ Oil nanofluids has been carried out. Electrical Explosion Wire (E.E.W) which is one of the most reliable one-step techniques for nanofluids preparation has been used. An annular tube has been considered as the test section in which the outer tube was subject to a uniform heat flux boundary condition of about 204 W. The utilized nanofluids were prepared in three different volume concentrations of 0.011%, 0.044% and 0.171%. A wide range of parameters such as Reynolds number Prandtl number, viscosity, thermal conductivity, density, specific heat, convective heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number and the friction factor have been studied. The experiment was conducted in relatively low Reynolds numbers of less than 160 and within a hydrodynamically fully-developed regime. According to the results, thermal conductivity, density and viscosity increased depending on the volume concentrations and working temperatures while the specific heat declined. More importantly, it was observed that convective heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number enhanced by 28.6% and 16.4%, respectively, for the highest volume concentration. Finally, the friction factor (which plays an important role in the pumping power) was found to be increased around 18% in the volume fraction of 0.171%.