Int. J. Nanomanufacturing, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2008 271 Thermal design analysis of compact heat exchanger using nanofluids V. Vasu* Department of Mechanical Engineering National Institute of Technology Warangal 506 021, India E-mail: vvvasu@rediffmail.com *Corresponding author K. Rama Krishna Department of Freshman Engineering Koneru Lakshmaiah College of Engineering Veddeswaram, 522 502, India E-mail: klce_drkrk@rediffmail.com A.C.S. Kumar Department of Mechanical Engineering Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad, India E-mail: acskumar@yahoo.com Abstract: Compact heat exchangers have been widely used in various applications in thermal fluid systems including automotive thermal fluid systems. Radiators for engine cooling systems, evaporators and condensers for HVAC systems, oil coolers and inter coolers are typical examples that can be found in ground vehicles. Recent development of nanotechnology brings out a new heat transfer coolant called ‘nanofluids’. These fluids exhibit larger thermal properties than conventional coolants (water, ethylene glycol, engine oil etc.) due to the presence of suspended nanosized particles in them such as Al 2 O 3 , Cu, CuO, TiO 2 etc. In this paper, a theoretical analysis was carried with the ε – NTU rating method by using Al 2 O 3 + H 2 O nanofluid as coolant on flat tube plain fin compact heat exchanger and different characteristics are graphically presented. Keywords: automobile radiator; compact heat exchanger; ε – NTU method; nanofluid. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Vasu, V., Rama Krishna, K. and Kumar, A.C.S. (2008) ‘Thermal design analysis of compact heat exchanger using nanofluids’, Int. J. Nanomanufacturing, Vol. 2, No. 3, pp.271–288. Biographical notes: V. Vasu is Lecturer at the National Institute of Technology (NITW), Warangal, India. He earned a Graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from V.R. Siddhartha Engineering College, Master’s degree from BITS Pilani and pursing PhD at JNTU Hyderabad on compact heat Copyright © 2008 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.