Investigation on the cooling performance of a compact heat exchanger using nanofluids

Abstract

In this paper, analysis of ethylene glycol (EG) as a base fluid with aluminum dioxide (Al2O3), diamond (DM), silicon dioxide (SiO2) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) as the coolants on compact heat exchangers (CHEs) with flattened tube plate fin is performed. By using ε-NTU rating method the cooling performance under cross flow arrangement of the CHEs with unmixed air and nanofluid as coolant will be investigated. The nanoparticles volume fraction θ is varied from 0 % to 4 %. The mathematical formulation, nanofluid properties and relevant input data are extracted from literatures. The CHE performance with respect to heat transfer coefficient, pressure drop and pumping power by means of MATLAB SIMULINK is investigated. The result shows that with the increase of nanoparticles volume fraction and nanofluid Reynold number, the CHE exhibits enhancement in term of heat transfer coefficient with the penalty of increase in pressure drop as well as pumping power. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.