Experimental and Analytical Study of Aluminum-oxide Nanofluid Implication for Cooling System of an Amphibious Engine

Abstract

The aim of this manuscript is to study the implication of aluminium-oxide nanofluid for an amphibious vehicle engine (viable on land and under water) cooling system both analytically and experimentally. To achieve this, a one-dimensional model of the engine cooling system (radiator) is considered through a computational fluid code in which the mass flow rate for a range of the coolant temperature is assumed to be constant. By knowing the volumetric flow rate of the air passing over the radiator, the heat transfer rates for different aluminium-oxide nanofluid volume concentrations at different amphibious engine gears are determined. The analytical results indicate that a 7% aluminium-oxide nanofluid increases the engine radiator heat transfer performance by 24.9%, while the experimental results show that the coolant outlet temperature is about 3˚C lower than the case without the nanofluid in the coolant.

Keywords

• amphibious vehicle
• coolant
• nanofluid
• vehicle engine cooling system