Nanofluid flow and heat transfer in T channel by using different concentration of nanoparticles

Abstract

The flow of Al2O3-H2O nanofluids across T channel has been studied. The thermophysical properties of the nanofluid are determined using experiments-based correlations, which takes into account Brownian motion of nanoparticles, operating temperature and size of the nanoparticles. The nanoparticle diameter dp is taken as 25nm with particle volume fraction ɸ varying from 0.01 to 0.05 and Reynolds number Re ranging from 5 to 200. Heat transfer augmentation takes place when nanoparticle concentration is increased. For instance, Nusselt number Nu is increased by 7% when ɸ is increased from 0.01 to 0.05 at Re=200 and dp=25 nm. The use of smaller nanoparticles can significantly promote thermal performance of the heat exchange arrays.

Heat transfer augmentation takes place across T channel. At Re=100 and dp=25nm value of Nu increases by 6.7% when value of ɸ changes from 0.01 to 0.05. Finally, mathematical correlations are derived for the calculation of Nu as a function of nanoparticle size, concentration and Re.