International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 48–57

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Thermos-physical properties and heat transfer characteristics of water/

anti-freezing and Al2O3/CuO based nanofluid as a coolant for car radiator
Alhassan Salami Tijani ⇑, Ahmad Suhail bin Sudirman
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In recent times conventional heat transfer fluids such as water and engine oil are widely used in the auto-
Received 1 August 2016 mobile radiator. However, to improve the thermal performance of the system, a lot more is required from
Received in revised form 20 September the aspect of the heat transfer fluid. Major improvements in cooling capabilities have been constrained
2017
because of poor thermal conductivities of the working fluids, which is vital in the enhancement of heat
Accepted 20 October 2017
transfer. The use of nano-sized (1–100 nm) solid particles as an additive suspended in the base fluid is
one of the technique to enhancement heat transfer. This study aims to evaluate the performance of
the heat transfer characteristics of water/anti-freezing based nanofluid as a coolant for car radiator.
Keywords:
Nanofluid
For the based fluid, a mixture of water and Ethylene Glycol were used with concentration of 50% for each
Car radiator of the fluid. Al2O3 and CuO nano particles of concentration 0.05%, 0.15% and 0.3% were added to the base
Alumina fluid and then evaluate the heat transfer characteristics of the nanofluid. The mass flow rate of nanofluid
Copper oxide in the flat tube was kept constant. The heat transfer models are simulated using ANSYS fluent solver. The
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) performance of the heat transfer characteristics were evaluated based on certain parameters which are
the heat transfer coefficient, thermal conductivity, Nusselt number, and rate of heat transfer of the
nanofluids. It was found that the nanofluid that exhibited the highest heat transfer performance was
the CuO nanofluid. The heat transfer coefficient was recorded at 36384.41 W/m2 K, the thermal conduc-
tivity was 1.241 W/m K, Nusselt number was 208.71 and the rate of heat transfer was at 28.45 W. The
Al2O3 nanofluid had a heat transfer coefficient of 31005.9 W/m2 K, thermal conductivity of 1.287 W/m
K, Nusselt number was 173.19 and the rate of heat transfer was at 28.25 W.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The cooling system of a car engine is important in maintaining
its performance. The engine produces a lot of heat that must be
removed in order for it to function optimally. The present cooling
system that is available uses water and anti-freezing agent as the
coolant for the radiator to remove the heat from the engine via
conduction and convection. The heat transfer performance of the
coolant is not adequate to remove more heat that may be produced
in the engine. With the use of nanoparticles, the surface area of
heat transfer of coolant can be increased, thus increasing the heat
transfer performance of the coolant. However, the concentration of
the nanoparticles of Al2O3 and CuO that can optimally transfer heat
must be determined.
In the past decades, research efforts have been conducted to
improve the performance of cooling system in cars, specifically
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: alhassan@salam.uitm.edu.my, alhassanuitm@gmail.com (A.S.
Tijani).
the radiator and coolant fluid. A research conducted by Ali et al.
[1] suggested that conventionally, modifying the fins and
microchannels of the radiator in order to increase cooling effect
has reached its limits. The past decade has seen rapid efforts spent
to modify the radiator in terms of its geometry [2–4]. Heat transfer
fluids such as water and engine oil are widely used in the industry
for low and high temperature applications, these fluids, however
have some limitations due to their poor thermal conductivities.
In the cooling system of a car, water and anti-freezing agents have
been widely used as heat transfer fluids [5]. In cold countries anti-
freezing agents such as ethylene glycol is added to the cooling fluid
in order to reduce the freezing point of the coolant and increase the
boiling point [6]. Fluids such as water and ethylene glycol used as
coolant in radiators have poor heat transfer performance, this
therefore requires a compact and effective heat transfer system
to meet the required heat transfer [7].
Nanofluids, which is a mixture of nanoparticles and base fluid
have the potential to increase the heat transfer as compared to
water and ethylene glycol [8]. Nanofluids contained suspended
nanoparticles that are significantly smaller than 100 nm, and have

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.10.083
0017-9310/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 A.S. Tijani, A.S.b. Sudirman / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 48–57
Nomenclature
q density
u particle sphericity
Cp specific heat capacity
k thermal conductivity
U empirical shape factor
l viscosity
Pr Prandtl number
Nu Nusselt number
Re Reynold’s number
d hydraulic diameter
a higher thermal conductivity as compared to the base fluids
[9,10]. The nanoparticles used in nanofluids are usually metals,
oxides, carbides or carbon nanotubes [11]. Recent studies shows
that a radiator that is able to withstand higher thermal load could
reduce the size of the radiator by approximately 30%. Furthermore,
the drag force, fuel pumping and fan power could be reduced as
well, resulting in 10% fuel savings [12]. Elias et al. [13] studied
the thermos-physical properties of Al2O3 nanoparticles suspended
in car radiator coolant and found that the maximum enhancement
of the nanofluid was 8.3% with the use of 1% concentration of
nanoparticles at 50 °C. Raja et al. investigated the performance of
alumina water at different ranges of nanoparticles volume frac-
tions. They concluded that the maximum heat transfer enhance-
ment of heat transfer coefficient was 25% at 2 vol% of alumina
nanoparticles [14]. Bozorgan et al. conducted a numerical study
on the characteristics of 7 nm Al2O3/water nanofluid with volume
concentrations up to 2% under turbulent conditions. Hussein et al.
[15] studied the heat transfer enhancement of nanopowders sus-
pended in pure water using TiO2 and SiO2 nanopowders under
laminar condition. Their results showed that the Nusselt number
increases as the volume flow rate, inlet temperature and nanofluid
volume concentration increases. Hwang et al. [16] conducted a
research on the stability and thermal conductivity characteristics
of nanofluids. From the results they obtained, they concluded that
the enhancement of thermal conductivity depends on the volume
fraction of the nanoparticles, thermal conductivities of the
nanoparticles and base fluids. Al2O3 nanoparticles were also used
by Mukesh et al. [17] to conduct a CFD analysis of heat transfer
and pressure drop in helically coiled heat exchangers. The
enhancement of the Nusselt number at 0.1%, 0.4% and 0.8% nano-
fluid concentration were 20%, 24% and 30% respectively. The
enhancements were due to the higher thermal conductivity of
the nanofluid and collision among the nanoparticles and fluid par-
ticles. Asmaie et al. [18] analyzed the thermal performance of
nanofluids in thermosiphon heat pipe using CFD modelling. The
fluid that was used were deionized water and CuO/water. In a
related research conducted by Asmaie et al., their results showed
that maximum heat flux of the nanofluid was about 46% higher
than that of water, and by increasing the concentration of the
nanofluid, the wall temperature decreases.
This paper focuses on the heat transfer performance of nano-
fluid by varying the concentration of nanoparticles (Al2O3 and
CuO) to be added to the base fluid, which is a mixture of water
and ethylene glycol, to be used as coolant in a car radiator. The con-
centration of the nanoparticles varied at 0.05%, 0.15%, and 0.3%.
The base fluid will be set as a mixture of water and ethylene glycol.
This project will be conducted using Computational Fluid Dynam-
ics (CFD) simulation in ANSYS software. In this study, only a sec-
tion of the radiator was considered for the analysis. The heat
transfer performance of the nanofluids was evaluated based on
49
h heat transfer coefficient
Q_ rate of heat transfer
m_ mass flow rate
T temperature
Subscript
nf nanofluid
bf base fluid
p nanoparticle
EG ethylene glycol
the thermal conductivity, Nusselt number, heat transfer coefficient,
and rate of heat transfer.
2. Modelling and simulation
The modelling of the car radiator was designed in Catia soft-
ware which was later imported into ANSYS Fluent software, based
on the design parameters collected from other literatures. The car
radiator consisted of flat tubes and louvered fins. The material of
the radiator, which is aluminium, was also applied to the design.
Due to the limitations of the ANSYS software itself, only a portion
of the flat tube and fins were imported into the ANSYS software to
be analysed further. Fig. 1 shows the detail illustrations of the geo-
metrical configurations of the car radiator. Fig. 1A shows the
dimensions of the flat tube, Fig. 1B shows how the hydraulic diam-
eter was estimated and Fig. 1C and D illustrates the meshed and
catia model respectively of the proposed geometry of the radiator.
Table 1 shows the geometrical configurations of the car radiator
used in this study [5].
2.1. Mode of operation of set up
Fig. 2 illustrate the schematic diagram of the mode of operation
of the car radiator integrated with other components such as water
tank, a heating coil, a feed pump, liquid flow meter, a blower to
induce forced draft, radiator, temperature indicators, power source
and reflux line. Initially the coolant inlet temperature to the radia-
tor is set at a desire value by means of a heater in the water tank. A
reflux line connected to a valve is used to adjust the flow rate. As
the hot coolant passes through the radiator flat tube, induced air
is blown across it, the result is that, the coolant is cooled to a desire
temperature. The cooled fluid is sent back to the water tank and
the process can be repeated for different flow rates. The fins
attached to the radiator flat tubes are used to increase the surface
area of the heat exchange and this increases the cooling effect. The
set up mimics the actual operating condition of car radiator.
3. Theoretical background
3.1. Model equations of the nanofluid physical properties
The thermophysical properties of the basefluid and nanofluid
were first determined using the mathematical models below.
Using these properties, the computation fluid dynamics analysis
was conducted in ANSYS Fluent software. The Al2O3 and CuO
nanoparticles were mixed with the base fluid that is water and
ethylene glycol. The nanoparticles were assumed to be well dis-
persed in the mixture and uniform throughout the system. Over
the years, there have been several formulas applied by other
50 A.S. Tijani, A.S.b. Sudirman / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 48–57

Tube height Fluid flow into flat tube A

b
a
Tube Tube length
width
Flat tube
C Space between fins

b
a

Fig. 1. (A) Schematic of flat tube (B) Flat tube hydraulic diameter Dh (C) Geometry of Meshed model (D) Catia model.

Table 1 area of the particle. In this paper the nanoparticle has been assumed
Geometrical configurations of the car radiator model. to be a perfect sphere whose sphericity w = 1, this assumption is
Tube length 31.5 cm widely used in many literatures [22,23]. This assumption support
Tube thickness 0.5 cm the estimation of the empirical shape factor U = 3. For ethylene gly-
Tube height 3 cm col based and mixture based nanofluids, this correlation has been
Tube width 20 cm
Number of fins 34
used to determine the viscosity of the nanofluid [24]:
Space between tubes 1.5 cm
Tube hydraulic diameter 0.5 cm qpV B d2p
Material used Aluminium lnf ¼ lbf þ ð4Þ
72Cd
Quality of the mesh 163,934 elements

where the second term is the apparent viscosity arising from the
effects of nanoparticles in the fluid. The distance between the cen-
tres of the nanoparticles, d and correction factor (C) is calculated
researches to determine the thermophysical properties of nanoflu-
respectively as follows:
ids [19–21]. The density and thermal conductivity of the nanofluid
were calculated using: rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
p
d¼ 3
dP ð5Þ
qnf ¼ uqp þ ð1  uÞqbf ð1Þ 6u

ðqCpÞnf ¼ ðqCpÞp þ ð1  uÞðqCpÞbf ð2Þ au þ b

C¼ ð6Þ
lbf
kp þ ðU  1Þkbf  uðU  1Þðkbf  kp Þ
knf ¼ kbf ð3Þ where a and b are experimental parameters, which for the engine
kp þ ðU  1Þkbf þ uðkbf  kp Þ
coolant Al2O3 nanofluids were estimated to be 0.00004 and
where U is empirical shape factor given by U = 3/w, and w is the 7.1274  107, respectively [25]. Tables 2 and 3 show the thermo-
particle sphericity, that is defined as the ratio of the surface area physical properties of alumina and copper oxide nanoparticles used
of a sphere with volume equal to that of the particle, to the surface in this study.
 A.S. Tijani, A.S.b. Sudirman / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 48–57 51

out

Radiator
flat tube
Temperature
indicator
Temperature
indicator
Radiator
Blower
Flow
Power
Reflux line meter
source

Heating coil
Feed pump
Water Tank
Fig. 2. Schematic of the operating condition of the car radiator.

Table 2
Thermophysical properties of alumina nanoparticle [6,25,26]. Nu ¼ 0:021Re0:8 Pr 0:5 ð10Þ
Specification Value The rate of heat transfer, Q_ of the nanofluids were obtained by
Appearance White powder means of the mathematical model as follows:
Purity +99%
Grain size (nm) 20
Density (kg/m3) 3970 Q_ ¼ mC
_ p ðT inlet  T outlet Þ ð11Þ
Specific heat (J/kg K) 765
Thermal conductivity (W/m K) 46

3.3. Boundary conditions

Table 3
The model was simulated using ANSYS FLUENT version 16.2.
Thermophysical properties of copper oxide nanoparticle [25,26].
The numerical calculation was done using the mathematical mod-
Specification Value els provided and was tabulated in an excel spreadsheet. The
Appearance Brownish-black powder boundary conditions for the simulation were applied to the veloc-
Purity +98% ity inlet, pressure outlet, and wall boundary condition and these
Grain size (nm) 60 can be stated as follows:
Density (kg/m3) 6500
Specific heat (J/kg K) 535.6
Thermal conductivity (W/m K) 20  The model used for the simulation was k-epsilon (Eq. (2))
 Inlet Velocity: coolant inlet velocity was set at 0.0387 m/s,
0.0516 m/s, 0.0645 m/s and 0.077 m/s, which corresponds to
3.2. Model equation for heat transfer the volumetric flow rate of 3 L/min, 4 L/min, 5 L/min, and 6 L/
min. The coolant inlet temperature was set at a constant value
The heat transfer characteristics were measured by means of of 95 °C which is equal to 368.15 K [29]. The hydraulic diameter
Nusselt number, thermal conductivity, heat transfer coefficient of the flat tube was set at 0.0052 m.
and rate of heat transfer. Several relations are available for evalu-  Pressure outlet: because the coolant flow inside the flat tube
ating the Nusselt number of the base fluid, in this work the widely was not developed through the tube length.
used correlation of Dittus and Boelter [27] was adopted for esti-  The wall of the flat tube was assumed with a convection bound-
mating the Nusselt number of the base fluid (see Eq. (8)). ary condition with heat transfer coefficient of 10 W/m2 K and
v cp l the air temperature is 35 °C [29].
Pr ¼ ¼ ð7Þ
a k
The modelled radiator design consisted of 34 aluminium tubes
Nu ¼ 0:023Re Pr 0:8 0:3
ð8Þ and continuous louvered fins. However, only one flat tube and con-
tinuous fins was used in the Fluent simulation in the ANSYS soft-
ware. The following assumptions were used for the simulation
Nu  k
h¼ ð9Þ and numerical calculations:
d
where k is the thermal conductivity of the fluid and d is the hydrau-  The flow was a steady flow, incompressible and under turbulent
lic diameter of the flat tube. flow
For the Al2O3/CuO nanofluids the Nusselt numbers are com-  The thermophysical properties of the coolants were constant
puted using correlations suggested by Pak and Cho [28]. throughout the flow.
52 A.S. Tijani, A.S.b. Sudirman / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 48–57

Table 4 tion of nanoparticles being added to the basefluid. Tables 5–7

Grid independency data of the CFD simulation. shows the thermophysical properties of the base fluid and nano-
Mesh relevance No of elements Output temperature (K) fluid. Density plays a very important role in determining the ther-
79 721,796 – mophysical behaviour of nanofluids due to its influence on
80 163,934 365.47 Reynolds number, Nusselt number and thermal diffusivity. It can
90 164,022 365.47 be observed from Tables 6 and 7 that there is a linear correlation
95 164,110 365.47 between density and particle concentration. This observation is
100 164,110 365.47
in line with results from other literature [19–21]. Another param-
eter that is very important in describing heat transfer enhance-
ment of nanofluid is thermal conductivity. Tables 6 and 7 shows
3.3.1. Grid independence study that thermal conductivity increases with increase in nano particle
Grid independence study was conducted in the simulation of concentration. From the properties shown, the lowest thermal con-
ANSYS Fluent to reduce the number of elements of the mesh and ductivity of the coolant is at 0.415 W/m K for the base fluid and the
also to reduce computing time and to find the lowest number of highest thermal conductivity observed is at 1.287 W/m K for 0.3%
elements that is independent of the results obtained. Different concentration of Al2O3 nanofluid. It can be concluded from Tables
number of elements of the mesh were considered in this simula- 5–7 that the nanofluids have a tremendous increase in thermal
tion to obtain the coolant output temperature that is independent conductivity as compared with the base fluid and this is expected
of the number of elements [30]. In this simulation, the number of to increase heat transfer enhancement in the radiator.
mesh elements was varied by changing the mesh relevance in Fig. 3 clearly describes the relationship of nanoparticle concen-
the simulation. Table 4 shows the grid independency data of the tration with the thermal conductivity of the coolant. As the con-
CFD simulation. The lowest number of elements, which was centration of nanoparticles added to the nanofluid increases from
163,934 elements have the same output temperature recorded as 0.05% to 0.3%, the thermal conductivity for both nanofluids
the highest number of elements, which was 164,110 elements. increases as well. Comparing both nanofluids, CuO nanofluid had
The coolant output temperature obtained was 365.47 K. A lower a lower thermal conductivity than that of Al2O3, with thermal con-
number of mesh element has a lesser computing time as compared ductivity of 1.241 W/m K and 1.287 W/m K for CuO and Al2O3
to that of a higher mesh element. Thus, a mesh relevance of 80 nanofluid respectively.
resulted in having 163,934 elements was chosen in the CFD
simulation.

4. Result and discussion

4.1. Nanofluid thermophysical properties

The heat transfer characteristic of the nanofluid was evaluated

by using the numerical solution and ANSYS Fluent solver. In order
to evaluate the properties, the thermophysical properties of the
nanofluid must be determined. Thermophysical properties such
as density, specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity and viscos-
ity were determined first before conducting the simulation. These
values vary according to the type of nanofluid and the concentra- Fig. 3. Thermal conductivity of nanofluid at different concentration.

Table 5
Thermophysical properties of base fluid as coolant.

Material Density (kg/m3) Specific heat capacity (J/kg K) Thermal conductivity (W/m K) Viscosity (kg/m s)
Base fluid 1027.01 3570 0.415 0.00076

Table 6
Thermophysical properties of Al2O3 nanofluid as coolant.

Material Properties
Water + EG + Al2O3 Density (kg/m3) Specific heat capacity (J/kg K) Thermal conductivity (W/m K) Viscosity (kg/m s)
0.05 1156.10 3461.123 0.668 0.0019
0.15 1452.30 2685.322 0.874 0.0019
0.3 1896.60 1975.971 1.287 0.0019

Table 7
Thermophysical properties of CuO nanofluid as coolant.

Material Properties
Water + EG + CuO Density (kg/m3) Specific heat capacity (J/kg K) Thermal conductivity (W/m K) Viscosity (kg/m s)
0.05 1282.600 3137.082 0.664 0.0019
0.15 1831.800 2165.382 0.858 0.0019
0.3 2655.600 1461.414 1.241 0.0019
 A.S. Tijani, A.S.b. Sudirman / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 48–57 53

Table 8
Mathematical modelling validation against experimental data.

Experimental (literature) This work Percentage error (average) %

Flow rate Nanoparticle concentration (Al2O3 Flow rate Nanoparticle concentration (Al2O3 Nanoparticle concentration
nanofluid) nanofluid)
l/min 0 0.05 0.15 0.3 l/min 0 0.05 0.15 0.3 0 0.05 0.15 0.3
3 61.59 63.45 68.78 71.78 3 55.10 56.35 57.82 58.13 10.53 11.19 15.93 19.02
4 79.35 82.43 87.29 90.81 4 69.39 70.96 72.81 73.20 12.55 13.91 16.58 19.39
5 90.48 92.55 98.83 102.40 5 82.89 84.77 86.98 87.45 8.39 8.41 11.99 14.60
6 90.77 101.38 107.23 110.55 6 95.94 98.11 100.67 101.21 5.70 3.23 6.12 8.45
Average Error 9.29 9.19 12.66 15.36
Total Average Error 11. 62

4.2. Validation of mathematical modelling with experimental data
In order to ensure accuracy of the validation of the simulation
results with experimental data, the same working fluid used in
the experiment was also adopted for the simulation.
In this manuscript Al2O3 nanofluid was used for the validation
purpose. Comparison of the Nusselt Number obtained from exper-
imental data [6] to mathematical modelling was to ensure the
accuracy of the results obtained from the simulation. Table 8
shows the tabulated data of Nusselt Number from the experiment
compared to the Nusselt Number obtained in this paper. An aver-
age error of 11.62% was recorded. This error was due to the differ-
ence in radiator model used in the experiment and the model used
in the simulation. Due to the constraints of number of elements in
the Fluent Software, only a section of the whole radiator model was
simulated in the software, while the whole radiator was used in
the experiment.
4.3. Data from ANSYS FLUENT simulation
Tables 9–11 show the heat transfer performance of each type of
coolant. The velocity was set at four different velocities for each

Table 9
Heat transfer performance of base fluid as coolant.

Material Prandtl number Velocity (m/s) Reynolds number Nusselt number Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
Water + EG 6.54 0.0387 16238.0 94.36 7550.36
6.54 0.0516 21650.7 118.78 9504.27
6.54 0.0645 27063.4 141.99 11361.79
6.54 0.0774 32476.1 164.29 13145.95

Table 10
Heat transfer performance of Al2O3 nanofluid as coolant.

Material Prandtl Number Velocity (m/s) Reynolds Number Nusselt Number Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
Water + EG + %Al2O3
0.05 4.92 0.0387 18564.44 96.41 8898.68
0.15 2.94 0.0387 23217.57 98.87 11969.69
0.3 1.49 0.0387 30197.25 99.47 17808.21
0.05 4.92 0.0516 24764.96 121.41 11205.99
0.15 2.94 0.0516 30972.24 124.51 15073.28
0.3 1.49 0.0516 40283.14 125.26 22425.65
0.05 4.92 0.0645 30928.36 145.03 13386.45
0.15 2.94 0.0645 38680.47 148.74 18006.24
0.3 1.49 0.0645 50308.62 149.63 26789.24
0.05 4.92 0.0774 37128.88 167.86 15493.50
0.15 2.94 0.0774 46435.14 172.15 20840.44
0.3 1.49 0.0774 60394.51 173.19 31005.90

Table 11
Heat transfer performance of CuO nanofluid as coolant.

Material Prandtl Number Velocity (m/s) Reynolds Number Nusselt Number Heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
Water + EG + %CuO
0.05 4.49 0.0387 20564.47 101.80 9351.62
0.15 2.42 0.0387 29217.75 111.99 13374.84
0.3 1.14 0.0387 42197.66 119.87 20897.36
0.05 4.49 0.0516 27433.00 128.20 11776.37
0.15 2.42 0.0516 38976.48 141.02 16842.75
0.3 1.14 0.0516 56291.67 150.95 26315.77
0.05 4.49 0.0645 34260.41 153.15 14067.82
0.15 2.42 0.0645 48676.77 168.46 20120.02
0.3 1.14 0.0645 70301.29 180.32 31436.29
0.05 4.49 0.0774 41128.94 177.25 16282.11
0.15 2.42 0.0774 58435.50 194.98 23286.94
0.3 1.14 0.0774 84395.31 208.71 36384.41
54 A.S. Tijani, A.S.b. Sudirman / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 48–57

coolant. The highest Reynold’s number was 84395.31, which is

clearly a turbulent flow, for the 0.3% concentration CuO nanofluid.
The lowest Nusselt number was calculated at 164.29 and the high-
est was at 208.71, for the base fluid as coolant and 0.3% concentra-
tion CuO nanofluid as coolant flowing at a velocity of 0.0774 m/s
respectively. The lowest heat transfer coefficient was at
13145.95 W/m2 K for the base fluid as coolant, while the highest
was at 36384.41 W/m2 K for the 0.3% concentration CuO nanofluid
as coolant, both were simulated at a velocity of 0.0774 m/s.
Figs. 4–7 depicts the Nusselt number and heat transfer coeffi-
cient of the nanofluid against the nanoparticle concentration in
the nanofluid at various volume flow rates. In general, the Nusselt
number and heat transfer coefficient increases as the nanoparticle
concentration increases from 0.05% to 0.3% and as the volume flow
rate increases from 3 L/min to 6 L/min.
Comparing both Al2O3 and CuO nanofluid, the highest Nusselt
number for Al2O3 and CuO nanofluid were 173.19 and 208.71
Fig. 6. Heat transfer coefficient of Al2O3 nanofluid at different concentration.
respectively, this was observed at 0.3% concentration for both
nanofluids and at 6 L/min volume flow rate. The highest heat trans-
fer coefficient recorded for Al2O3 and CuO nanofluid were 31005.9
W/m2 K and 36384.41 W/m2 K respectively.
From Figs. 4–7 the highest heat transfer performance of nano-
fluid as coolant were recorded at the highest volume flow rate,
which was 6 L/min. The highest heat transfer performance were
also determined at the highest concentration of nanoparticle in
the nanofluid, which was 0.3%. These parameters exhibited the
highest and most potential heat transfer performance in the aspect
of thermal conductivity, heat transfer performance and Nusselt
number.
Table 12 and Fig. 8 below shows the data of rate of heat transfer
at the highest volume flow rate, which was 6 L/min. From the data,

Fig. 7. Heat transfer coefficient of CuO nanofluid at different concentration.

Table 12
Rate of heat transfer of various coolant.

Materials Outlet Temperature Rate of heat

temperature (K) difference transfer, Q (W)
Basefluid 365.59 2.56 27.56
Basefluid + 0.05% Al2O3 365.56 2.59 27.66
Basefluid + 0.15% Al2O3 365.49 2.66 27.96
Basefluid + 0.30% Al2O3 365.39 2.76 28.25
Basefluid + 0.05% CuO 365.57 2.58 27.74
Basefluid + 0.15% CuO 365.52 2.63 28.09
Basefluid + 0.30% CuO 365.47 2.68 28.45

Fig. 4. Nusselt number of Al2O3 nanofluid at different concentrations.

Fig. 5. Nusselt number of CuO nanofluid at different concentration.
when the base fluid only was used as the coolant, it recorded the
lowest rate of heat transfer, which was at 27.56 W.
With a mixture of base fluid and 0.3% CuO nanofluid as coolant
in the car radiator model, the rate of heat transfer was the highest
which was at 28.45 W. The value of the rate of heat transfer
increases as the concentration of nanoparticle in the nanofluid
increases.
In this manuscript temperature has been selected as the main
parameter to study heat transfer distribution across the surface
of the radiator tube and the fins. The reason for selecting temper-
ature contour is that, it describes the effect of thermal characteris-
tics of each nanofluid on heat transfer enhancement.
Fig. 9 shows the temperature profile of the cooling process in
the car radiator model. The temperature contours for each type
of coolant was obtained from the simulation data using ANSYS Flu-
ent software. It can be observed from Fig. 9 that, the temperature
 A.S. Tijani, A.S.b. Sudirman / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 48–57 55

Fig. 8. Rate of heat transfer of different nanofluid.

Fig. 9. Temperature and streamline profile of coolant at 6 L/min (a) base fluid (b) 0.3% Al2O3 nanofluid (c) 0.3% CuO nanofluid.

contours cover the entire region of the car radiator model, proving and to the fins attached on the side of the flat tube walls. The con-
that the heat from the high temperature of the coolant was trans- ditions of the simulation setup of the coolants in Fig. 9 were at 0.3%
ferred via convection and conduction to the walls of the flat tube nanoparticle concentration and at a volume flow rate of 6 L/min.
56 A.S. Tijani, A.S.b. Sudirman / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 118 (2018) 48–57
Fig. 10. Velocity and streamline profile of coolant at 6 L/min (a) base fluid (b) 0.3% Al2O3 nanofluid (c) 0.3% CuO nanofluid.
This is because under this condition, the heat transfer perfor-
mances of each type of coolants were at the highest as compared
to other volume flow rates and nanoparticles concentration. Also
Fig. 9b and c shows a better and higher heat transfer (convection)
from the nanofluids to the outer surface (conduction) of the radia-
tor tube and fins, this is largely attributed to the enhancement of
the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids. This remarkable heat
transfer (temperature distribution) associated with Fig. 8b and c
cannot be seen in Fig. 8a where only the base fluid is used as the
heat transfer medium.
Fig. 10a–c shows the velocity distribution of the coolant fluid
flow in the flat tube. It can be concluded that there is a moderate
decrease in velocity of the fluid for each case. This is expected
because of pressure drop from the inlet to the outlet of the flat
tube.
5. Conclusion and suggestion
The heat transfer performance of both Al2O3 and CuO nanofluid
were determined and compared against each other. Both nanoflu-
ids were also compared to the basefluid to determine the best fluid
to be used as coolant in the car radiator. The addition of Al2O3 and
CuO nanoparticles to the coolant fluid of the car radiator enhanced
the heat transfer performance, with an increase in the thermal con-
ductivity, heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number. The ther-
mal conductivity of the basefluid was 0.415 W/m K. With the
addition of 0.3% of Al2O3 and CuO nanoparticles, the thermal con-
ductivity increased to 1.287 W/m K and 1.241 W/m K respectively.
The heat transfer coefficient of the basefluid, 0.3% Al2O3 nanofluid
and 0.3% CuO nanofluid were 13145.95 W/m2 K, 31005.9 W/m2 K
and 36384.41 W/m2 K respectively. Lastly, the Nusselt number of
the basefluid was 164.29, 0.3% Al2O3 nanofluid was 173.19 and
0.3% CuO nanofluid was 208.71 respectively. From these data, it
can be concluded that CuO nanofluid exhibited a higher heat trans-
fer performance as compared to that of Al2O3 nanofluid, with the
highest concentration of nanoparticle which was 0.3% and at max-
imum flow rate of 6 L/min.
Acknowledgements
AlhamdulLila, the authors gratefully acknowledge Faculty of
Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah
Alam, Selangor, Malaysia for providing the simulation tool for this
study.
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