International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395 -0056
Volume: 03 Issue: 06 | June-2016 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2016, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 4.45 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1709
Study of Heat Transfer Performance and Pumping Power Improvement
of Nanofluid Through a Rough Circular Tube
Mohammad Monjurul Ehsan
1
, Shafi Noor
2
Department of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Organisation of
Islamic Cooperation, Gazipur, Bangladesh, Email- ehsan@iut-dhaka.edu, shafi@iut-dhaka.edu
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Abstract -The higher thermal conductivity of solid
nanoparticles is utilized in enhancing the overall thermal
and hydrodynamic behavior of working fluid for optimum
design of compact heat exchangers. The addition of
nanoparticles in base fluid within a preferred volume
fraction so called nanofluid provides superior thermo-
physical properties compared to that of base fluid which
finally assists in improving the overall heat transfer
characteristics. In the present work, Al2O3-water nanofluid
is employed in a rough circular tube subjected to constant
heat flux to investigate the forced convection heat transfer
characteristics and pumping power under turbulent flow
condition. The study is performed for a wide range of
Reynolds number- 10,000 to 30,000 with different volume
fraction of nanoparticles (1% to 5%) and different relative
roughness of pipe wall (0.001, 0.002 and 0.003). SST k-ω
turbulence model for single phase analysis is adopted and
finite volume method is employed for solving the transport
equations (mass, momentum and energy) and turbulence
quantities. The heat transfer rate is substantially enhanced
by the implementation of nanofluid in rough tube compared
to that of smooth tube with an increase of Reynolds number
and volume fraction. Finally the optimum volume fraction of
nanoparticles is determined for which nanofluid requires
lower amount of pumping power compared to water. The
reduction of mass flow rate for nanofluid is also calculated
which results better thermal performance.
Key Words:Nanofluid, heat transfer, pumping power,
relative roughness, turbulent
1.INTRODUCTION
This In recent years, in the field of sustainable energy, the
implementation of nanofluid has been exploited
tremendously in heat and mass transfer applications
because of its extreme demand as an effective and suitable
heat transfer fluid to reduce the size and material cost for
designing compact heat exchangers. Nanofluid refers to
the mechanism of stable and uniform suspension of solid
metallic nanoparticles of size less than 100 nm in
conventional base fluid like water, oil or ethylene glycol
etc. The solid nanoparticles have higher thermal
conductivity which potentially influences in enhancing the
overall thermal and hydrodynamic characteristics of the
working fluid [1-4]. To accomplish equivalent heat
transfer rate, nanoparticles are dispersed in base fluid
with low volume concentration which significantly change
the thermo-physical properties of working fluid and
eventually enhances the heat transfer rate [5, 6].
Numerous researches have been carried out with
nanofluids employed in different geometries to enhance
the heat transfer performance in many aspects of heat and
mass transfer applications.
Maiga et al. [7,8] investigated the forced convection heat
transfer enhancement utilizing γ-Al2O3-water and γ-Al2O3-
ethylene glycol nanofluids inside a uniformly heated
circular tube under constant heat flux for both laminar and
turbulent flow conditions. Heat transfer coefficients were
augmented by the increase of Reynolds number and
volume fraction. Finally a correlation was provided for
mean Nusselt number in terms of Reynolds number and
Prandtl number. Behzadmehr et al. [9] performed
numerical investigation on turbulent heat transfer in a
circular tube subjected to constant heat flux using Cu-
water nanofluid with 1% volume fraction and multiphase
approach was employed. Improvement of heat transfer
coefficients was shown and results were compared with
single phase. Zeinali et al. [10] experimented to observe
the enhancement of heat transfer rate for laminar flow
using Al2O3-water nanofluid through a circular pipe for a
wide range of Peclet number 2,000 to 6,000 and volume
fraction of 0.2% to 2.5%. Bianco et al. [11] reported
improvement of Nusselt number of Al2O3 -water nanofluid
in a circular tube with an increase of Reynolds number
and volume fraction adopting both single and multiphase
analysis. Laminar flow was considered for a range of
Reynolds number 200 to 1200 and volume fraction 1% to
4%. Izadi et al. [12] studied numerically laminar forced
convection in an annulus using Al2O3-water nanofluid to
observe the heat transfer enhancement as well as the
thermal and hydrodynamic behavior of fluid flow. Yurong
et al. [13] worked on the heat transfer intensification of
TiO2-water nanofluid through straight circular tube
adopting both single phase and combined Euler and
Lagrange method for laminar flow condition. Fotukian and
Nasr [14] reported significant improvement of heat
transfer and studied the pressure drop of CuO-water
nanofluid through a circular tube for a range of Reynolds
number of 5,000-33,000. Heat transfer coefficients were
increased by 25% with a penalty of pressure drop 20%