Heat transfer studies of Al2O3/water-ethylene glycol nanofluid using factorial design analysis

Abstract

The experimental study of the heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid plays a significant role in improving the heat transfer rate of the heat exchanger. A natural convection apparatus was used to study heat transfer in the suspension of Al2O3 nanoparticles in a water-ethylene glycol mixture base fluid. The effects of the heat input, the nanoparticle volume fraction, and the base fluid concentration on the heat transfer coefficient were studied using a 23 full factorial design matrix (16 experimental runs) and the MINITAB Design software. The levels for the heat input, nanoparticle volume fraction, and base fluid concentration were 10 and 100 W, 0.1 and 1 vol.%, and 30 and 50 vol.%, respectively. The residual, contour, 3D surface plots, and Pareto chart were drawn from the experimental results. The observed heat transfer coefficient showed the highest enhancement with the high level of the nanoparticle volume fraction and a moderate enhancement with the high level of heat input, and a slight enhancement with the base fluid concentration.

Keywords

• al2o3 nanofluid
• full factorial design
• heat transfer
• natural convection