A new correlation for pressure drop in the cooling process of Al2O3-water nanofluid in pipes

Abstract

This paper discusses the pressure drop of Al2O3-water nanofluid in laminar flow regimes in circular pipes at different temperatures and Al2O3 volume concentrations in both cooling and heating processes. The traditional correlation for calculating pressure drop fails to accurately estimate the pressure drop for laminar flows in cooling processes, but for heating processes there is good agreement with the traditional correlation. Accordingly, this study developed new empirical correlations for calculating friction factors in laminar flows in cooling processes at higher volume concentrations (0.5%). This study found that Al2O3-water nanofluid enhances pressure drop and that temperature rise also reduces pressure drop. The maximum deviations between calculated new correlation and experimental results were reduced to within the -13.64% to +9.98%..

Keywords

• pressure drop
• friction factor
• al2o3-water nanofluid
• cooling and heating
• laminar flow