Experimental heat transfer studies on copper nanofluids in a plate heat exchanger

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to study the influence of copper nanoparticle concentration on heat transfer performance of a mixed base fluid. In the present study, the performance of copper nanoparticles in ethylene glycol (eg) + propylene glycol (pg) + water (W) base fluid was analyzed in the chevron- type plate heat exchanger. The sol-gel method was used to prepare copper nanoparticles (100 nm), dispersed in two different mixed base fluids of volume fractions 5%EG + 5%PG + 90%W and 15%EG + 5%PG + 80%W. Experiments were performed by varying the nanoparticle concentration from 0.2 to 1.0 vol.%. Three different hot fluid inlet temperatures were used (55, 65 and 75 °C). It is revealed from the study that the rate of heat transfer increased significantly with the mixed base fluid. Result shows that at 75 °C, 9 and 14.9% enhancement in the Nusselt number is obtained for 5%EG + 5%PG + 90%W and 15%EG + 5%PG + 80%W base fluid, respectively, for the nanoparticle concentration of 1%.

Keywords

• heat transfer
• nanofluid
• plate heat exchanger