International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 90 (2018) 1–10

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

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

Experimental study of thermal conductivity, heat transfer and friction factor T

of Al2O3 based nanofluid
⁎
Nishant Kumara, Shriram S. Sonawanea, , Shirish H. Sonawaneb
a
Chemical Engineering Department, VNIT, Nagpur 440010, India
b
Chemical Engineering Department, National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal 506004, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Presented research paper is an investigation of water, paraffin and ethylene glycol based Al2O3 nanofluid. Heat
Al2O3/water transfer coefficient is measured using shell and tube heat exchanger under the conditions of fully developed
Al2O3/EG and Al2O3/paraffin nanofluids laminar and turbulent flow. Concentration of nanoparticles in the respective base fluids was varied from 0.01 vol
Thermal conductivity enhancement % to 0.08 vol% in the step of 0.1%. Nanofluids were used as the working fluid and sent to tubular side. The
Shell and tube heat exchanger
effects of Reynold's number and concentration of nanoparticles in nanofluid on heat transfer characteristics were
Nuselt number
studied. A significant enhancement in heat transfer coefficient and thermal conductivity of nanofluid over base
Reynolds number
Volume fraction fluid is found in the study. As the concentration of nanoparticles was increased, heat transfer coefficient was also
improved marginally. At greater turbulence, the improvement in the heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid over
base fluid was found to be more than that at lower turbulence. This is due to homogeneous distribution of
nanoparticles in a base fluid at higher temperatures was achieved. The various factors that were considered in
the characterization of nanofluid heat transfer coefficients are: sonication time, temperature, pressure difference,
base fluid (water, paraffin and EG). Pressure drop in case of nanofluid was higher than base fluid in the turbulent
regime; however, no significant change was observed in the laminar region.

1. Introduction
The nanofluid term was first proposed by Choi [30], in recent many
researchers have been paid attention on nanofluid for various reasons,
e.g. enhancement of thermal conductivity; heat transfer performance.
The conventional heat transfer fluids such as such, as water, ethylene
glycol, and engine oil have relatively low thermal conductivities, when
compared to the thermal conductivity of solids. Nanofluids are the very
good alternative for the heat-transfer fluid; nanofluids are suspensions
of nanoparticles with at least one of the dimensions < 100 nm [1].
Much other type of particles like micro sized particle has some
problem in using of the suspension such as clogging of flow channels
due to poor suspension stability due to the large size of particles.
Nanofluid is a suspension of nanoparticles in a fluid has been found
better thermal conductivity than their respective base fluids [2]. There
are a number of advantages of using nanofluid over the conventional
fluids such as long suspension stability, no clogging in systems and little
pressure drop. It is because of the nanometer size of the particles, and
the concentration of the nanoparticles used is very less [3].
The thermal and physical properties of nanofluids such as viscosity
and thermal conductivity have been determined by many researchers
[4–8]. Duangthongsuk et al. [9] studied the effective thermal con-
ductivity and effective viscosity of TiO2-water nanofluids with particle
volume concentrations of 0.2, 0.6, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 vol%. The results
show that the relative thermal conductivity of nanofluids increases with
increasing particle volume concentration and slightly decreases with
increasing temperature. In contrast with thermal conductivity data, the
viscosity of nanofluids significantly decreases with increasing tem-
perature and increases with increasing particle volume concentration.
Gallego et al. [10] investigated the thermal conductivities and viscos-
ities of Al2O3in ethylene glycol nanofluids have been determined ex-
perimentally as a function of volume concentration and temperature.
Enhancements up to 19% and more than twice the values of the base
fluid were found for thermal conductivity and viscosity, respectively.
Many studies have been done to calculate the convective heat
transfer performance of various nanofluids in both laminar and turbu-
lent regimes [11–14]. The results of those studies showed that the in-
clusion of nanoparticles in the base fluid enhances the thermal con-
ductivity, and heat transfer performance. Prasad et al. [15] investigated
the enhancement of heat transfer using Al2O3/water nanofluid in a u-
tube with twisted tape inserts and 18.18% and 31.28% improvement
found in Nusselt number within the Reynolds number of 3000 and

⁎
Corresponding author at: Department of Chemical Engineering, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, (M.S.) 440010, India.
E-mail addresses: sssonawane@che.vnit.ac.in, shriramsonawane@gmail.com (S.S. Sonawane).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2017.10.001

Available online 20 November 2017

0735-1933/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
N. Kumar et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 90 (2018) 1–10

Nomenclature Pr Prandtl number (Dimensionless)

Tci,Tco Inlet and outlet temperature of cold fluid, °C
∅ volume fraction ΔP Pressure drop across the tube, kg/m2
δf Density of fluid, kg/m3 EG ethylene glycol
δp Density of particle, kg/m3 di Inside tube diameter, m
CPp Specific heat of particle, KJ/kg-k d0 Outside tube diameter, m
CPf Specific heat of fluid, KJ/kg-k U Overall heat transfer coefficient, W/m2K
q convective heat transfer, W μ Dynamic viscosity, kg/m2s
A Area, m2 ρ Density, kg/m3
K Thermal conductivity, W/mK h heat transfer coefficient, W/m2-k
f Friction factor m Massflow rate, kg/s
Nu Nusselt number (Dimensionless) L Length of tube, m
Re Reynolds number (Dimensionless) ΔTm Log mean temperature difference, k

30,000, respectively. The friction factor of 0.03% nanofluid flowing in a concentration of nanoparticle and temperature on heat transfer and
tube compared with identical concentration, fluid for two different pressure drops is analyzed. Furthermore, the particle size analysis is
Reynolds number. Kulkarni et al. [16] synthesized the nanofluids of used to analyze the size of the nanoparticle and SEM (Scanning Electron
SiO2 nanoparticles suspended in a 60:40 (% by weight) ethylene glycol Microscope) is used to observe the shape of the nanopartilces. In recent
and Water (EG/water) mixture and investigated the heat transfer and times, the development in nanotechnology offers the best opportunity
fluid dynamic performance of nanofluids. An enhancement of the heat to enhance the heat-transfer performance of fluids by introducing na-
transfer coefficients is about 16% at a concentration of 10% with 20 nm noparticles.
particle diameter at Re = 10,000. Xuan et al. [17] investigated the
performance of Cu-water nanofluids in a tube experimentally. The
2. Experimental work
suspended nanoparticles enhance the heat-transfer performance for the
nanofluids in comparison of the base fluid under the same Reynolds
2.1. Nanofluid preparation and stabilization
number. The friction factor of Cu/water nanofluid is approximately the
same as that of water because of the low-volume concentration of
The nanofluid for the present study was prepared by the two-step
suspended nanoparticles in the fluid.
method. Two-step method is the most widely used methods for pre-
This paper presents an approach to synthesize Al2O3/water, Al2O3/
paring nanofluids because it is the most economic process to synthesis
ethylene glycol and Al2O3/paraffin nanofluids using chemical synthesis.
nanofluids. Nanoparticles or other nanomaterials used in this method is
We measure both thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer
first produced as dry Powders by chemical or physical methods. Then
enhancement of nanofluids for laminar and turbulent flow in a hor-
the nanosized particles will be dispersed in a fluid in the second pro-
izontal stainless steel shell and tube heat exchanger and discuss cases in
cessing step with the help of Ultrasonic agitation. In general two-step
which this nanofluid could be beneficial as a coolant. Nanofluids are
method is simpler than the one-step process, because the nanoparticles
also finding their application on electronics cooling, where it is used in
can be added directly to bulk liquid to prepare nanofluid. However,
removing of high intensity of heat flux. The effect of Reynold's number,
addition of nanoparticles in the fluid causes agglomeration and poor

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of shell and tube

heat exchanger.
1. Shell
2. Tubes
3. Hot fluid storage tank
4. Cold fluid storage tank
5. Pumps
6. Temperature data acquisition
7. Pressure data acquisition
8. Temperature sensors
9. Pressure sensors
10. Hot fluid flow pipes
11. Cold fluid flow pipes

2
N. Kumar et al.
suspension the nanofluids therefore; it requires dispersion method such
as, ultrasonication. Azmia et al. [18] prepared the titanium oxide (TiO2)
and aluminium oxide (Al2O3) based nanofluids in water ethylene glycol
(EG) by the two-step method. Mechanical stirrer was used for 30 min
for proper mixing and ultrasonication used for 2 h for each sample to
enhance the stability of nanofluids. Wang et al. [19] synthesize the
Al2O3 based nanofluid in deionized water by the two-step method. In
first nanoparticles were injected in deionized water by mechanically
mixing for ten minutes long and then ultrasonic vibration unit used for
better dispersion and stability of nanoparticles and also prevent the
deposition of nanoparticles on the wall.
Generally, two-step methods are simpler than one-step methods,
because the nanoparticles may either be self-made, or purchased, then
added to a bulk liquid to form nanofluids. However, in the process of
adding, agglomeration can occur easily, resulting in poor suspension,
thus, two-step methods often require dispersion methods such as ul-
trasonic sonication, mechanical stirring, a Homogenizer, or the addition
of a surfactant or dispersant, to disrupt agglomeration and provide
dispersion and stabilize the suspension. The advantages of two-step
syntheses are facile and rapid preparation of large-volume nanofluids;
greater control over the nanoparticle concentration and narrow particle
size distribution is than that of single-step synthesis.
The present study was prepared by dispersing Al2O3 nanoparticles
in base fluid such as: Distilled water, Ethylene glycol and Paraffin. A
1200 W CromTech sonicator with 30 KHz and different intensities was
used for better dispersion of nanoparticles in the base fluids. For better
dispersion of nanoparticles in the base fluids, sanction was done for
60 min. After sonication solutions were kept for 10 min to reduce the
sonication effect. Nano fluids with different loadings of 0.01 to 0.08
volume fraction of nanoparticles were used as working fluids.
2.2. Experimental setup
Experimental setup for measuring thermal conductivity was con-
sisting of KD2 Pro digital recorder which consists of the microcontroller
and sensor probe. The KD2 Pro is a fully portable field and lab thermal
property's analyzer developed to measure thermal conductivity, diffu-
sivity and resistivity. The compact KD2 Pro controller is much more
than a simple readout for time and temperature. It consists of a hand-
held microcontroller and sensor needles. All the measurements were
performed at a three different temperature (30 °C, 40 °C and 50 °C). The
accuracy of the instrument was checked by measuring thermal con-
ductivity of glycerin provided by suppliers and comparing with the
instrument reading of standard samples.
The investigation of convective heat transfer characteristics of Al2O3
based nanofluids flowing through a shell and tube heat exchanger was
done. Fig. 1 shows the experimental setup which has been fabricated to
analyze convective heat transfer. The apparatus consists of fabricated
shell inside which tubes with baffles on an outer side are fitted. The
nanofluids flows through the inner tube while the hot water flowing
through the shell side. Peristaltic pumps are provided to control the
flow rate of nanofluids and hot water. For temperature measurement
temperature, sensors are provided at the inlet/outlet of cold water line
and hot water line. A peristaltic pump is given to circulate the hot water
from a recycled type water tank, which is fitted with a heater and di-
gital temperature controller. The nanofluid was placed in cold-water
tank and circulated in the tubes by the peristaltic pump. Pressure
transducer was placed at the inlet/outlet of the tube side to record
pressure difference. The specification of tubes is given in Table 1.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characteristics of nanoparticles
The scanning electron micrograph (Fig. 2) of the Aluminium oxide
nanoparticles shows the presence of spherical particles. The high
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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 90 (2018) 1–10
resolution SEM image of procured alumina nanoparticles is nearly
spherical to a spheroid shaped nanoparticles was observed. The parti-
cles were observed to be in agglomerated condition. Ultrasonication
was used to break these aggregates and to facilitate dispersion in the
base fluid. The particle size analyzer image taken on a 50 nm scale
showed the alumina nanoparticles in different sizes ranging from 5 to
18 nm. The particle size distribution of Al2O3 nanoparticles is shown in
(Fig. 3) from which it is evident that the nanoparticles average size is
10 nm.
3.2. Thermal conductivity measurement of nanofluids
Thermal conductivity is a very important property of nanofluid for
the study of convective heat transfer of any fluid, because the con-
ductivity of particles is more than the fluid. The measurement of
thermal conductivity was done by the transient hot-wire method. The
advantages of this method are the accuracy in the result and its re-
sponse faster than any other process and also avoid the natural con-
vection effects completely [20].
3.2.1. Effect of concentration
Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles are used by many re-
searchers because of its better thermal properties and its most common
and inexpensive nanoparticles. Table 2 presents the thermal con-
ductivity of water, ethylene glycol and paraffin at three different tem-
peratures. Table 3 shows the variation of the effective thermal con-
ductivity of Al2O3-water, Al2O3-ethylene glycol and Al2O3-paraffin at
different concentration of nanoparticles. As the concentration of na-
nopaticles increases in the base fluid the thermal conductivity value
enhanced. The thermal conductivity of the base fluids without the ad-
dition of nanoparticles was 0.61 W/mK, 0.246 W/mK and 0.21 W/mK
the addition of the highest volume percent was found to be 0.65 W/mK,
0.298 W/mK and 0.248 W/mK for water, ethylene glycol and paraffin
respectively at room temperature.
3.2.2. Effect of temperature
The thermal conductivity enhancement of three different nanofluids
(Al2O3-water, Al2O3-EG and Al2O3-paraffin) has been measured at
30 °C, 40 °C and 50 °C. Fig. 4 show the thermal conductivity ratio as a
function of volume concentration of nanoparticles and the temperature
of nanofluids. As it is mentioned earlier, that nanoparicles dispersion in
a base fluid gave higher thermal conductivity than the base fluid.
Temperature is an important factor, when it comes to an enhancement
of thermal conductivity of nanofluids. As the temperature of nanofluid
increases the particle agglomeration, and viscosity decreases, so that
the decrement in the particle agglomeration and viscosity would im-
prove the Brownian motion of nanoparticles in base fluid.
3.3. Convective heat transfer performance of nanofluids
Before starting the experiment all three base fluids (Water, EG,
Paraffin) were used to determine the heat-transfer coefficient and
friction factor for the accuracy of the experimental system. A simple
example of transfer type of heat exchanger can be in the form of a tube
type arrangement in which one of the fluids is flowing through the
inner tube and the other through the annulus surrounding it. The heat
transfer takes place across the walls of the inner tube.
Heat transfer rate, Log mean temperature difference (LMTD) and
Table 1
Design parameters of heat exchanger.
Length of tubes = 0.6 m
Number of tubes = 8
Outer diameter of tubes = 0.0137 m
Inner diameter of tubes = 0.0107
N. Kumar et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 90 (2018) 1–10

overall heat transfer coefficient can be calculated as follows:

Rate of heat flow (tube side fluid);
Qc = mc CPc (Tco − Tci ) (1)
Rate of heat flow (shell side fluid);
Qh = mh CPh (Tho − Thi ) (2)

∆T1 − ∆T2
∆Tm = ∆T
ln ∆ T1 (3)
2

∆T1 = (T1 − t2)

∆T2 = (T2 − t1)

where:
T1 =Outlet shell side fluid temperature
t2 = Inlet tube side fluid temperature
Fig. 2. Scanning electron micrograph image of aluminium oxide nanoparticle.
T2 =Inlet shell side fluid temperature
t1 = Outlet tube side fluid temperature
Qavg
U=
A∆Tm (4)
where Q is amount of heat transfer, U is overall heat transfer coefficient
and Δ Tm is log mean temperature difference. mc, CP, T0 , Ti is mass flow
rate of nanofluid, specific heat, outlet temperature and inlet tempera-
ture respectively. Δ T1,ΔT2 and A are outlet temperature difference,
inlet temperature difference and heat transfer area respectively.
A heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids (coolant) to the water
has been calculated by the Newton's cooling law, the rate of heat
transfer between the wall of the annulus and the coolant is
Q = hA∆Tm (5)
where, h is a convective heat transfer coefficient. The temperature of
the wall and hot water are assumed to be equal. The Nusselt number of
the nanofluid is estimated from Eq. (6)

Fig. 3. Particle size analysis of aluminium oxide nanoparticle. h Di

Nu =
K (6)

Table 2 where Di is the inner diameter of tube and K is the thermal conductivity
Experimental values of thermal conductivity for water, ethylene glycol and paraffin. of nanofluids. The Reynolds number is based on the flow rate of the
tube.
Water Ethylene glycol Paraffin
ρvd
Tem.(K) K(W/mK) Tem.(K) K(W/mK) Tem.(K) K(W/mK) Renf =
μ (7)
303 0.61 303 0.246 303 0.21 The Prandtl number of the nanofluids is calculated by Eq. (8), which
313 0.618 313 0.25 313 0.215
323 0.621 323 0.256 323 0.219
depends upon the specific heat, thermal conductivity, and viscosity of
nanofluids at mean temperature of the fluid.
Cp μ
Table 3 Prnf =
Experimental values of the thermal conductivity of Al2O3 nanofluids based on water,
K (8)
ethylene glycol and paraffin. Before performing the convective heat transfer coefficient of the
nanofluid, the reliability and accuracy of the shell and tube heat ex-
Concentration of Al2O3 Keff. Keff. Keff.
changer are estimated by using distilled water as the working fluid. The
Nanoparticle (vol%) Water Ethylene glycol Paraffin experiment was conducted for Al2O3-water, Al2O3-EG and Al2O3-par-
affin nanofluids when the hot-water temperature kept constant (60 °C).
(Tem = 303 K) (Tem = 303 K) (Tem = 303 K)
The nanofluids prepared in different concentration of nanoparticles, i.e.
0.01 1.011 1.028 1.028 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 vol% for three different base fluid. The flow rates
0.02 1.018 1.048 1.042 of nanofluids are varied from 0.5 to 5 LPM. The specification of ex-
0.03 1.024 1.081 1.071 perimental condition is given in Table 4.
0.04 1.031 1.117 1.09 Fig. 5 presents the convective heat transfer coefficient of the Al2O3-
0.05 1.044 1.142 1.114
0.06 1.05 1.166 1.138
water, Al2O3-EG and Al2O3-paraffin nanofluids versus Reynold's
0.07 1.057 1.191 1.157 number of various volume concentrations. The results clearly indicate
0.08 1.065 1.211 1.18 that the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids increases with
Reynold's number for each concentration. For all the three nanofluid,
the convective heat transfer coefficient increases significantly as the
concentration of nanoparticles increases in the base fluid at a constant
Reynolds number. The maximum enhancement of the convective heat

4
N. Kumar et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 90 (2018) 1–10

Fig. 4. Thermal conductivity ratio of (A) Al2O3–Water (B)

Al2O3–Ethylene glycol (C) Al2O3–Paraffin nanofluids versus vo-
lume fraction of 10-nm-diameter nanoparticles.

Table 4 transfer coefficient of Al2O3-water nanofluids occurs at 0.02, 0.04, 0.06

Experimental conditions. and 0.08 vol% or at 5 LPM flow rate of 13%, 18%, 23% and 28%, re-
spectively. In the case of Al2O3-EG nanofluid, the maximum enhance-
Parameter hot fluid Hot fluid Cold fluids (nanofluids)
ment of the convective heat transfer coefficient occurs at 0.02, 0.04,
Temperature °
50–80( C) 27 0.06 and 0.08 vol% is 12%, 18%, 22% and 26% respectively at the
Flowrate 1 LPM 0.5–5 LPM temperature of the hot fluid is 60 °C. And the enhancement occurs of
Reynolds number 1000–3000 1000–5000 Al2O3-paraffin nanofluids are 9%, 15%, 21% and 25% for the con-
Volume fraction of nanoparticles 0 0.01–0.08
centration of nanoparticles at 0.02, 0.04, 0.06 and 0.08 vol%

5
N. Kumar et al.
respectively.
The concentrations of Al2O3 nanoparticles used in this experiment
are very less to the base fluids, the density, viscosity and the thermal
conductivity increases and the specific heat decreases as compared to
the base fluids. Hwang et al. [21] studied the convective heat transfer
performance of Al2O3-water nanofluid in a heated circular tube in the
fully developed laminar flow regime. The enhancement of convective
heat transfer was to 8% at a concentration of 0.3 vol% compared with
that of pure water. Various researchers suggest that the Brownian
motion of nanoparicles in the base fluid increases the heat-transfer
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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 90 (2018) 1–10
Fig. 5. Heat transfer rate of Al2O3 based nanofluid versus Reynolds
number of different concentrations (50 °C hot fluid) (A) Al2O3-water
(B) Al2O3-EG (C) Al2O3-paraffin.
performance of nanofluid. The random motion of nanoparticles within
the fluids decreases the thermal boundary-layer thickness, and it has a
significant contribution in enhancement of heat transfer [22]. In-
vestigation on the heat transfer coefficient of Al2O3-water nanofluid at a
constant wall boundary temperature in laminar flow is carried out by S.
Zeinali Herish [23]. They have used the single-phase correlation model
for studying enhancement of the heat transfer coefficients in circular
tubes. They have also found the optimum concentration of nanofluid is
around 2.5% with enhancement of Peclet number from 1.05 to 1.29.
Heyat et al. [24] studied the heat-transfer coefficient characteristics of
N. Kumar et al.
40 nm Al2O3 water based nanofluids at different concentration range.
The experimentation was carried out at fully developed laminar flow
regime in circular tubes at constant wall boundary temperature. They
have found critical improvement in the heat transfer coefficient by 32%
at a concentration of 2 vol%. The study shows that with the increase in
Reynold's number and particle aggregation the improvement in heat
transfer coefficient increases fairly.
It seems that the higher velocity of nanofluids increases the chaotic
movements of nanoparticles in the base fluid and improves the energy
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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 90 (2018) 1–10
exchange rate, which causes the base nanofluids to have a higher
convective heat transfer coefficient. It is well known that the flow
characteristics of the fluid affect the convective heat transfer to a
greater extent. Increasing the flow rate induces eddies in the flow,
which ultimately help in increasing the heat-transfer efficiency. At low
Reynold's number, an agglomeration of nanoparticles might happen in
nanofluid flow, which will reduce the heat-transfer enhancement at
lower Reynold's number. However, at high Reynold's number, the ag-
glomeration effect is reduced significantly and the dispersion of
Fig. 6. Friction factor variations versus Reynolds number (A)
0.04 vol% Al2O3-water nanofluid (B) 0.04 vol% Al2O3-EG nanofluid
(C) 0.04 vol% Al2O3-paraffin nanofluid.
N. Kumar et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 90 (2018) 1–10

nanoparticles intensifies the mixing, which results in a significant in- exchanger has been analyzed. The Darcy friction factor of nanofluid
crease in the heat transfer coefficient. was evaluated according to Eq. (9) with the values recorded by the
pressure transducer.
3.4. Fiction factor ∆P
fexp =
Pressure drop over the tube side of the shell and tube heat ( )( )
L
d
ρv 2
2 (9)

Fig. 7. Comparison of experimental Nusselt number with existing

convective heat transfer correlations (A) (Al2O3-water) (B) (Al2O3-
EG) (C) (Al2O3-paraffin).

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N. Kumar et al.
where fexp the friction factor of the nanofluid, Δ P is the measured
pressure drop of the nanofluid, L is the length of the tube, d is the tube
diameter and v is the velocity of nanofluid in a single tube.
The experimental values of friction factor for Al2O3-water, Al2O3-EG
and Al2O3-paraffin was estimated with Eq. (9) were compared with the
values calculated using Blasius [25] and Petukhov [26] which is valid
for the laminar and turbulent flow.
f = 0.316 Re−0.25 (3000 < Re < 105) (10)
f = [0.79 Ln (Re) − 1.64]−2 (2300 < Re < 5 × 105) (11)
Fig. 6 presents the friction factor of Al2O3-water, Al2O3-EG an-
dAl2O3-paraffin nanofluids with respect to Reynold's number. As the
concentration of nanoparticles increases, there is very slightly an in-
crement in friction factor, but the increment of flow rate of nanofluid
decreases the friction factor. It is because the fluid flow at the higher
flow rate becomes a fully developed turbulent flow.
The friction factor decreased with the increase of the Reynold's
number and increased with the concentration of nanofluids. Since the
fluid flow is fully developed turbulent flow, the friction factor inside the
tube is negligible.
3.5. Comparison between experimental results and available correlations
The experimental data obtained in the present study has been
compared with Gnielinski correlation [27], Dittus-Boelter [28] and
Xuan & Li [29] correlation given in Eqs.:
Nu = 0.023·Re0.8·Pr 0.3 Dittus−Boelter (12)
Nu = 00059·(1 + 7.6286 ∅0.6886 ·Pr 0.0001)·Re0.9238·Pr 0.4
Xuan Li (13)
Nu = 0.012·(Re0.87 − 280)·Pr 0.3 Gnielinski correlation (14)
Fig. 7(A, B, C) compares the experimental Nusselt number of Al2O3-
water, Al2O3-EG and Al2O3-paraffin nanofluids respectively. The results
show very good agreement with the given correlations as can be seen in
the figures. Results show that 0.06 vol% of Al2O3/water nanofluid a
good agreement between the experimental results and the predicted
values by Gnielinski, Dittus-Bolter and Xuan and Li correlations, espe-
cially at a turbulent flow. For example, the deference between the ex-
perimental result and the predicted result for the Nusselt number for
0.06 vol% of Al2O3/water nanofluid at Reynold's number 4324 is 4%,
11% and 8% for Dittus-Bolter, Gnielinski and Xuan and Li correlations
respectively. As we can see in Fig. 7, these correlations almost predicted
the Nusselt number for these nanofluids. These types of correlations
also used by other investigators previously for the different types of
nanofluids [25].
4. Conclusion
In this paper the thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer
enhancement of water, EG and paraffin based nanofluids. Experiments
were carried out in the wide range of laminar to the turbulent flow
regime. The following conclusions were obtained:
▪ It has been found that the thermal conductivity increase as the
concentration of Al2O3 nanoparticles increases in the base fluids,
whereas when the temperature increases thermal conductivity also
increases.
▪ An enhancement in the overall heat transfer coefficient has been
studied for all three nanofluids for different concentration, flow rate
and temperature of hot fluids.
▪ The heat-transfer behavior of Al2O3-water, Al2O3-EG and Al2O3-
Paraffin nanofluids in a shell and tube heat exchanger was in-
vestigated. The experiments were done for a wide range of Reynold's
numbers and concentrations of nanoparticles.
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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 90 (2018) 1–10
▪ The experimental study showed that the heat-transfer characteristics
of the nanofluids improved with Reynold's number. The addition of
Al2O3 in the base fluid enhanced the overall heat transfer of a na-
nofluid compared with that of a base fluid at the same Reynolds
number.
▪ The addition of Al2O3 nanoparticles increases the heat-transfer area
of the fluid, and it increases the convective heat transfer of nano-
fluids. This is because the nanoparticles are near the surface of the
internal wall of the heat exchanger and hence fast heat exchange
takes place. Nanofluids can be considered as next-generation heat
transfer fluids in heat transfer applications.
▪ The thermal conductivities of all three nanofluids were studied for
different concentrations, temperatures and sonication times. As the
concentration of the Al2O3 increases in the base fluids, the thermal
conductivity increases because suspended Al2O3 nanoparticles in-
crease the turbulence of the fluids, which accelerates the energy
exchange process.
▪ Pressure drop of the nanofluids in the shell and tube heat exchanger
has been studied. The proportional increase in fiction factor in
turbulent flow is higher than that for laminar flow as the base fluid.
There is no significant increase in the pressure drop at a laminar
flow.
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