Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546

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Applied Thermal Engineering

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

Particle ratio optimization of Al2O3-MWCNT hybrid nanofluid in T

minichannel heat sink for best hydrothermal performance
⁎
Vivek Kumar, Jahar Sarkar
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (B.H.U.), Varanasi, UP 221005, India

H I GH L IG H T S

• Experimental hydrothermal behaviour of Al O -CNT hybrid nanofluid in minichannel.

2 3

• Effects of flow rate (Rynolds number), temperature and mixture ratio are studied.
• Effect of particle mixture ratio on h/Δp and performance evaluation criteria is studied.
• Optimum particle mixture ratio is found as 3:2 for best hydrothermal performance.

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Interesting hydrothermal behavior of hybrid nanofluid containing combination of dissimilar particles (com-
Minichannel heat sink pletely different in terms of shape, size and properties) by changing their ratio is unexplored yet, which is
Hybrid nanofluid analyzed experimentally for minichannel heat sink. Nine parallel rectangular minichannels are used in the heat
Nanoparticle mixture ratio sink each of which has 1 mm width, 3 mm depth and 30 mm length. Al2O3–MWCNT/water hybrid nanofluid of
Heat transfer
0.01% volume concentration with various nanoparticle mixture ratios is used as coolant to analyze the effect of
Pressure drop
Optimization
Reynolds number and working fluid inlet temperature. Nanoparticles mixing ratios (5:0, 4:1, 3:2, 2:3, 1:4 and
0:5) have been taken as volume ratios. Convective heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number, pressure drop and
friction factor increase with an increase in fraction of MWCNT in hybrid nanofluid. A maximum enhancement of
44.02% has been observed for the convective heat transfer coefficient with MWCNT (5:0) hybrid nanofluid as
compared to water. Maximum pressure drop has been increased by 51.2% over base fluid at an inlet temperature
of 20 °C for the MWCNT (5:0) hybrid nanofluid. Inlet fluid temperature has negative effect on pressure drop and
positive effect on heat transfer. The observed optimum volumetric mixing ratio of Al2O3 and MWCNT is around
3:2, for which hybrid nanofluid yields maximum heat transfer coefficient to pressure drop ratio. Performance
evaluation criteria (PEC) has been evaluated greater than 1 for all the nanofluids, which concludes that nano-
fluids are better option as compared to conventional fluid (DI water). Based on the experimental data, corre-
lations for Nusselt number and friction factor have been introduced with R2 values of 98.8% and 96.3%, re-
spectively, and compared with available correlations.

1. Introduction enhanced by using nanofluids as well as hybrid nanofluids due to their

Due to miniaturization and increasing power density of advanced
electronic devices, an effective cooling system is needed for their op-
timal operation. The use of micro/mini channel heat sinks (MCHS) is
one of effective ways for high heat flux removal [1,2]. The miniaturized
heat exchanger (i.e., MCHS) has gained a lot of attention due to ma-
terials preserving, space constraints and demand of higher energy
density, which can transmit more heat per unit volume than conven-
tional heat exchangers [3]. The heat transfer capability can be further
better heat transfer characteristics [4]. With proper hybridization and
trade-off between advantages and disadvantages of individual suspen-
sion, hybrid nanofluid is supposed to yield better thermal properties
and hence attracted as cooling media for various applications [5].
Alumina, a most common metal oxide nanoparticle has been used by
many researchers due to its low cost, availability, chemical stability and
higher heat transfer improvement to pumping power increase ratio [6].
On the other hand, multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) has at-
tracted many researchers due to its higher thermal conductivity and

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jsarkar.mec@itbhu.ac.in (J. Sarkar).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114546
Received 9 April 2019; Received in revised form 21 August 2019; Accepted 16 October 2019
Available online 18 October 2019
1359-4311/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
V. Kumar and J. Sarkar
Nomenclature
A effective heat transfer area (m2)
cp specific heat (J/kg K)
dh hydraulic diameter (mm)
f friction factor
h heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
hch channel height (mm)
k thermal conductivity (W/m K)
V̇ volume flow rate (LPM)
Nu Nusselt number
Δp pressure drop (Pa)
Pr Prandtl number
Q̇ heat transfer rate (W)
Re Reynolds number
T temperature (°C)
u velocity (m/s)
vol volume
wch channel width (mm)
very high aspect ratio for application in nanofluids [7]. Hence, alumina
and MWCNT can be the best combination in hybrid nanofluid for
MCHS.
Many experimental studies have been conducted on hydrothermal
characteristics of nanofluid in MCHS [8–11]. However, few studies
have been conducted on MCHS using hybrid nanofluids. Selvakumar
and Suresh [12] investigated hydrothermal characteristics of hybrid
nanofluids in minichannel and observed 24.35% enhancement in the
convective heat transfer coefficient and 12.61% increase in pumping
power. An experimental study carried out by Ho at al. [13,14] using
hybrid water-based suspensions of Al2O3 and MEPCM particles in
minichannel heat sink and showed that Al2O3–water nanofluid is ef-
fective over hybrid nanofluids at higher Reynolds number. Ahammed
et al. [15] experimentally investigated the characteristics of graphe-
ne–alumina hybrid nanofluids in a minichannel and reported con-
vective heat transfer coefficient enhancement of 63.13%. An experi-
mental study has been done by Nimmagadda and Venkatasubbaiah [16]
for Al2O3 + Ag hybrid nanofluid in microchannel showed that Nusselt
number enhances with volume concentration. Bahiraei et al. [17] in-
vestigated the irreversibilities of CNT/Fe3O4 hybrid nanofluid in the
minichannel heat exchanger and showed that at low Fe3O4 concentra-
tion, an optimum point found for the total entropy generation. Hussien
et al. [18] experimentally investigated the performance of MWCNT/
GNP hybrid nanofluids in microtubes in the Re range of 200–500 and
found that average heat transfer coefficient enhances 58% for MWCNT/
GNP hybrid nanofluid. They also numerically examined Al2O3/gra-
phene hybrid nanofluid inside minitube and found maximum en-
hancement in heat transfer coefficient about 13.7% over Al2O3/water
nanofluid [19]. The performance of different microchannel heat sink
using graphene-Ag hybrid nanofluid has been numerically investigated
in laminar regime [20,21] and revealed that nanofluid is better cooling
option in comparison to water. Hydrothermal feature of chaotic twisted
minichannel has been studied by Bahiraei and Mazaheri [22] using
graphene nanoplatelets decorated with platinum hybrid nanofluid and
found figure of merit always more than 1.5. Shahsavar et al. [23] nu-
merically evaluated the hydrothermal performance of Fe3O4/CNT/
water hybrid nanofluid in double pipe minichannel by considering both
non-Newtonian and Newtonian fluids and found superior performances
of non-Newtonian hybrid nanofluid. A numerical investigation has been
done by Uysal et al. [24] in rectangular minichannel using Diamond-
Fe3O4/Water hybrid nanofluid and showed that hybrid nanofluid has
higher convective heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number over the
mono particles nanofluids. Kumar and Sarkar [25] numerically and
experimentally investigated the heat transfer and pressure drop of
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Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546
Lch channel length (mm)
PEC performance evaluation criteria
Greek symbols
µ dynamic viscosity (Pa s)
ρ density (kg/m3)
Φ volume concentration
Subscripts
bf base fluid
np nanoparticle
hnf hybrid nanofluid
ch channel
in inlet
out outlet
s surface
m mean
Al2O3-TiO2 hybrid nanofluid in minichannel and showed improvement
over base fluid.
Nanoparticle mixture ratio influences the heat transfer character-
istics of hybrid nanofluids; although the studies are limited on this
important issue. Charab et al. [26] proposed the model of thermal
conductivity for 1.0 v% Al2O3-TiO2 hybrid nanofluid with different
particle ratios and reported maximum heat transfer enhancement up to
35.3% for 2:3 ratio. Moldoveanu et al. [27] experimentally investigated
the thermal conductivity of Al2O3–SiO2/Water hybrid nanofluids and
noticed that the hybrid nanofluid has higher thermal conductivity
compared to alumina nanofluid. Hamid et al. [28] performed an ex-
perimental investigation on thermal conductivity and viscosity of hy-
brid nanofluids with different particle ratio. They observed maximum
thermal conductivity enhancement up to 16% for 1:4 ratio of TiO2-SiO2
and highest dynamic viscosity for the ratio of 5:5. They [29] also per-
formed an experimental study on the heat transfer performance of
cooling equipment for the same pair of nanoparticles and found max-
imum heat transfer enhancement up to 35.3% for 2:3 ratio. Dalkılıç
et al. [30] experimentally investigated the viscosity of Graphite-SiO2
hybrid nanofluid at different volume concentrations and different
weight ratios and showed a viscosity increase of 0.65–36.32% with an
increase in volumetric concentration. Siddiqui et al. [31] studied the
stability and thermophysical properties of Cu-Al2O3 hybrid nanofluid
for different mixing ratios and showed that 5:5 was the optimum mixing
ratio because of its better thermal conductivity and good stability to
achieve overall hydrothermal properties. Zawawi et al. [32] in-
vestigated the thermophysical properties of Al2O3–SiO2/PAG nanolu-
bricants for various particle mixture ratios and found that 60:40 was the
optimum mixture ratio with the lowest property enhancement ratio.
Esfe et al. [33] experimentally investigated the optimized ratio of
MWCNT (30 vol%)-Al2O3 (70 vol%) in 5 W50 oil with total volume
concentrations of 0.05% to 1% and found maximum viscosity en-
hancement of 24%. Kumar and Sarkar [25] experimentally studied
Al2O3-TiO2 hybrid nanofluid in minichannel heat sink with different
mixture ratio. As shown, similar shaped nanoparticle combination has
been only considered in the investigation. With the best of the authors'
knowledge, no similar study on minichannel heat sink using dissimilar
nanoparticles combination is available which can equally affect both
the hydrodynamic and thermal behaviours.
In the previous study [25], we have seen the negligible effect of
mixture ratio for similar particles (oxide-oxide) and hence we will ex-
perimentally analyze the effect of mixture ratio for dissimilar particles
(oxide-carbon nanotube) on the performance of minichannel heat sink
using Al2O3-MWCNT/water hybrid nanofluids in this study. The present
V. Kumar and J. Sarkar
experimental work is focused only on the different volume mixing ratio
of two dissimilar particles (oxide-carbon nanotube) with fixed volume
concentration of 0.01%. At higher volume concentration, heat transfer
as well as pressure drop characteristics may be improved; however may
lead to minichannel clogging problem due to the presence of MWCNT
(its length is in micro level). Effects of Reynolds number, nanoparticle
mixture ratio and inlet temperature have been investigated on the
convective heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number, pressure drop and
friction factor. Heat transfer coefficient to pressure drop ratio and
performance evaluation criteria (PEC) have been discussed as well to
find optimum mixture ratio. Also, correlations have been developed for
Nusselt number and friction factor and compared with the similar
correlations available in the literature.
2. Methodology
2.1. Test facility
The layout and photograph of the experimental setup are given in
Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. The detailed description of the experimental
setup has been reported earlier [25]. For heating, a cartridge heater
having the power of 50 W, with cross-section of 10 mm × 30 mm is
placed into the bottom of MCHS. Dimension, temperature, volume flow
rate, pressure drop and heating power have been measured by vernier
calliper, thermocouple, rotameter, pressure transducer and wattmeter,
having uncertainties of ± 0.02 mm, ± 0.1 °C, ± 0.5%, ± 0.25% and ±
0.25%, respectively. Photo image and schematic of the minichannel
heat sink with dimensions are shown in Fig. 3. Minichannel heat sink
made of aluminium consists of 9 parallel rectangular-shaped mini-
channels each of which has a width of 1 mm, a depth of 3 mm, a length
of 30 mm and hydraulic diameter of 1.5 mm. Side fines of minichannel
are of 0.7 mm and all others fins are of thickness 1.2 mm. Pitch of
minichannel has been shown in Fig. 3 with side pitch of 1.95 mm and
all others pitch of 2.20 mm.
The experiments were first performed by using distilled water and
Fig. 1. Layout of the experimental setup [25].
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Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546
then using Al2O3–MWCNT hybrid nanofluids. Working fluids at dif-
ferent inlet temperatures (20 °C, 30 °C and 40 °C) were supplied into the
system from the reservoir by using a pump. The heat input was supplied
to the system when the maximum Reynolds number was achieved.
Volume flow rates were chosen to yield moderate Reynolds number
range, for which, no study is available in the literature for present
hybrid nanofluids. Five surface thermocouples were used to calculate
the surface temperature. Four thermocouples were inserted at all the
four corners of minichannel and one thermocouple was inserted at the
centre of the heat sink to the bottom for measure the surface tem-
perature (Ts). The surface temperature has been taken by averaging of
all the five readings by thermocouples. All the readings were taken
under steady-state condition, i.e., thermal equilibrium, which was
achieved in 40–50 min of the time interval.
Reliability and verification of the experimental setup have been
justified by the published research work based on the present setup
[25]. Experimental Nusselt number for the conventional fluid (DI
water) was compared from existing correlation given by different au-
thors and found similar trend and close prediction.
2.2. Preparation of hybrid nanofluids
A two-step method was used to prepare the Al2O3–MWCNT/DI
water hybrid nanofluids. Alumina nanoparticles (45 nm diameter)
manufactured by Alfa Aesar, USA and multiwall carbon nanotubes
(diameter: 20 nm, Length: 2 µm) manufactured by Otto Chemie Pvt.
Ltd. were dispersed in the DI water. Acid-treated MWCNT used in this
investigation to make it hydrophilic to DI water. Al2O3 nanoparticle and
MWCNT have been taken in the different volume mixing ratios are 5:0,
4:1, 3:2, 2:3, 1:4 and 0:5, respectively to prepare hybrid nanofluid of
0.01 vol% concentration. An electronic balance (SHIMADZU, ATX224,
Japan) was used to measure the calculated amounts of Al2O3 and
MWCNT nanoparticles and then they were mixed with DI water.
Ultrasonicator (Labman Scientific Instruments, India) was used to have
cell disruption and homogenization of the colloid for 6–8 h without
V. Kumar and J. Sarkar Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546

Fig. 2. Photograph of experimental setup [25].

surfactant. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of Al2O3-
MWCNT hybrid nanofluid of 3:2 mixture ratio is shown in Fig. 4, which
predicts a uniform distribution of both nanoparticle types and average
particle size is of Al2O3 nanoparticles is < 50 nm. The nanofluid sample
has been observed stable more than 3 days and experiments were per-
formed using homogenized hybrid nanofluids.
The pH value obtained in the range of 7.71–7.74 for the small
sample of synthesized hybrid nanofluids taken from the four different
places of the container. The pH value obtained is far away from the
isoelectric points (IEP) which ensure the homogeneity and stability of
the hybrid nanofluids [34]. Better homogeneity and stability is
achieved when the pH value of the sample is away from the IEP value
due to the large repulsion among the nanoparticles. The density and
viscosity of synthesized nanofluids were determined for the same 4
different samples which have been used for the determination of pH
values. No appreciable change was measured in the density for all the
samples. The Viscosity values are obtained in the range of 1.19 cP to
1.24 cP; which was measured at 100 RPM and room temperature.
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to show the distribution of
the initial nanoparticles in the hybrid nanofluids. From the SEM image
(shown in Fig. 4), it can be observed that particles are uniformly dis-
tributed in the synthesized hybrid nanofluid. Similar homogeneity of
particles distribution also observed from the SEM images of the other
samples. The degree of homogeneity of prepared hybrid nanofluids was
found approximately 98% based on the measured properties.
2.3. Thermophysical properties of nanofluids
Volumetric heat capacity ( ρcp ) value was measured by Hot Disk TPS-
500 analyzer and then specific heat cp was obtained by dividing ρcp
with ρ . LVDV-II + Pro Brookfield digital viscometer was used to mea-
sure the viscosity of samples. Thermal conductivity of the prepared
nanofluid samples was measured by Hot Disk TPS-500 analyzer.
2.4. Data analysis
By measuring flow rate, fluid inlet and outlet temperatures, the heat
transfer rate has been predicted by,
Q̇ = V̇ ρcp (Tout − Tin ) (1)
Then, the average convection heat transfer coefficient was calcu-
lated by,
Q̇
h=
A (Ts − Tm ) (2)
where Tm is mean fluid temperature and Ts is average wall temperature
(average of five thermocouples reading, inserted at different locations
to bottom of the heat sink).
The effective heat transfer area (A) has been calculated as,
A = N (wch + 2ηfin hch) Lch (3)
where N is the number of channels, ηfin is fin efficiency, Lch, wch and hch
are length, width and height of channel, respectively. Fin efficiency can
be found out using Eqs. (4) and (5) by iteration [35].

Thermophysical properties for DI water and Alumina-MWCNT hy- tanh(mhch )

ηfin =
brid nanofluids for different proportion at 30 °C have been shown in mhch (4)
Table 1. Various apparatuses were used to experimentally measure the
effective thermophysical properties of prepared hybrid nanofluids. Be- m= 2h (km wfin ) (5)
fore collecting data, all the instruments were calibrated and measure-
ments have been repeated three times. The density was obtained by where km is the heat sink material thermal conductivity and wfin is the
measuring mass (using electronic balance machine) of specified volume width of the fin.
(using measuring biker) and then dividing mass by volume ( ρ = m V ). Hydraulic diameter (dh) of minichannel is defined as,

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V. Kumar and J. Sarkar Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546

Fig. 3. Minichannel heat sink with schematic diagram.

2wch hch 2dh Δp

dh = f=
wch + hch (6) Lch ρum2 (10)
Thus, the Nusselt number has been predicted as below:
hdh
Nu =
k (7) 2.5. Uncertainty analysis
um is mean fluid velocity and it is calculated based on volumetric
Uncertainty analysis of the convection heat transfer coefficient,
flow rate, it is defined as
Reynolds number, Nusselt number and friction factor have been done
V̇ by Kline and McClintock [36] equation. During experiments with
um =
Nwch hch (8) MCHS, the temperatures, flow rates and pressure loss were measured
with appropriate instruments. The values of uncertainty (W) obtained
The Reynolds number is given by, are given in Table 2.
ρum dh
Re = 2 2 2 1 2
μ (9)
W=⎡ ⎛ ∂R ⎞ ⎛ ∂R ⎞ ⎛ ∂R ⎞⎤
⎢ ∂X1 W1 + ∂X2 W2 + ⋯ ∂Xn Wn ⎥
⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟ ⎜ ⎟

By measuring the flow rate and pressure drop, the friction factor is ⎣ ⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠⎦ (11)
defined as,

5
V. Kumar and J. Sarkar Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546

number can be easily observed by the figures. This may be due to

thinning of the thermal boundary layer.
Enhancement in heat transfer coefficient is observed with the ad-
dition of nanoparticles as compared to DI water, which can result to
many reasons including an increase in thermal conductivity, various
slip mechanisms and the nano-fin effects [6]. The nanoparticles car-
rying the heat along with them also contributed to these results along
with results from the fluid movement around the nanoparticles causing
micro convection [37]. The viscosity decreases with the increase in
temperature, which may be the cause of thinning of the boundary layer.
For the same temperature difference, heat transfer coefficient increases
due to thinning of the thermal boundary layer. The large surface area of
particles, micro convection may increase the heat dispersion in the fluid
at a faster rate. As MWCNT nanoparticles fraction increasing in the
nanofluid, the heat transfer coefficient is increased. The maximum
value of the calculated heat transfer coefficient is 4997.5 W/m2 K for
MWCNT/DI water nanofluid. The maximum enhancement of the heat
Fig. 4. SEM image of Al2O3-MWCNT hybrid nanofluid at 100 k magnification.
transfer coefficient has been predicted by nearly 44.02% for 0.01 vol%
MWCNT/DI water nanofluid compared to DI water. It is mainly due to
Table 1 the very high thermal conductivity of MWCNT nanoparticles. Another
Thermo-physical properties of DI water and Alumina-MWCNT hybrid nanofluid reason may be a higher specific surface area due to the higher aspect
(0.01v%) for different proportion at the temperature of 30 °C. ratio of the carbon nanotube. It shows from the figures that there is an
Fluids Thermal Specific Density Viscosity increment in the heat transfer coefficient with an inlet temperature of
conductivity (W/ heat (J/kg (kg/m3) (Pa s) coolants. The heat transfer coefficient is increased for MWCNT/DI
m K) K)
water nanofluid by 12.12% when the temperature of working fluid is
DI water 0.6170 4182.4 997.3 0.00091 increased from 20 °C to 40 °C. The heat transfer enhancement was
Al2O3 + CNT (5:0) 0.6175 4181.0 998.8 0.00093 considerably improved at higher working temperature because of the
Al2O3 + CNT (4:1) 0.6177 4180.8 998.7 0.00094 improvement of thermal properties. The increment of thermal con-
Al2O3 + CNT (3:2) 0.6181 4180.4 998.2 0.00095 ductivity of nanofluids is more meaningfully at higher operating tem-
Al2O3 + CNT (2:3) 0.6188 4180.3 998.0 0.00095
Al2O3 + CNT (1:4) 0.6195 4180.1 997.9 0.00097
perature. Enhancement in thermal conductivity which is dependent on
Al2O3 + CNT (0:5) 0.6207 7179.9 997.7 0.00099 temperature may be another possible advantage for using the nano-
fluids as the high-temperature coolants.
Fig. 8 shows the variation of Nusselt number with Reynolds number
Table 2 for different working fluids at the inlet temperatures of 30 °C. Increase
The uncertainties during the measurements of the experimental parameters. in flow rate causes an increase in Reynolds number and Nusselt number
Variable Uncertainty value (%)
due to an increase in heat transfer coefficient. The addition of nano-
particles results into increase in Nusselt number as shown in figure due
Heat transfer rate, Q̇ (W) ± 2.87 to the increase in heat transfer coefficient as discussed above. The
Effective area, A (m2) ± 1.2 Nusselt number for hybrid nanofluids also shows dependency on the
Hydraulic diameter, dh (m) ± 1.02
mixture ratio of nanoparticles, although the variation is similar to heat
Velocity, um (m/s) ± 0.78
Thermal conductivity, k (W/m K) ± 2.0
transfer coefficient. As the MWCNT fraction increases in the hybrid
Viscosity, µ (Pa/s) ± 2.0 nanofluid, Nusselt number increases. The maximum increment of
Density, ρ (kg/m3) ± 2.0 41.04% is found for MWCNT/DI water nanofluid compared to DI water.
Specific heat, cp (J/kg K) ± 2.0 This is due to increment in the heat transfer coefficient supported by
Heat transfer coefficient, h (W/m2 K) ± 3.1
Friction factor, f ± 2.76
Nusselt number, Nu ± 3.83
Reynolds number, Re ± 3.1
h/Δp ± 3.12
PEC ± 5.47

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Heat transfer characteristics

The variations of calculated heat transfer coefficient with Reynolds

number for different coolants at the inlet temperatures of 20, 30 and
40 °C has been depicted in Figs. 5–7. Due to the wide range of atmo-
spheric temperature globally, the present investigation is done on dif-
ferent inlet temperature to claim the sustainability and flexibility of the
current study. Constant temperature bath having synchronized heating
and cooling provisions before flowing into the channel is employed for
maintaining these temperatures. In the figures, analysis has been dis-
played for various coolants synthesized by changing the fraction of
MWCNT and Al2O3 nanoparticles for a total of 0.01% volume con- Fig. 5. Variation of heat transfer coefficient with Re (Inlet
centration. Heat transfer coefficient increases with the Reynolds temperature = 20 °C).

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V. Kumar and J. Sarkar Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546

Fig. 6. Variation of heat transfer coefficient with Re (Inlet

Fig. 9. Variation of Pressure drop with Re (Inlet temperature = 20 °C).
temperature = 30 °C).

Fig. 7. Variation of heat transfer coefficient with Re (Inlet Fig. 10. Variation of Pressure drop with Re (Inlet temperature = 30 °C).
temperature = 40 °C).

Fig. 11. Variation of Pressure drop with Re (Inlet temperature = 40 °C).

Fig. 8. Variation of Nusselt number with Reynolds number (Inlet

temperature = 30 °C).

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V. Kumar and J. Sarkar Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546

equation (7). Improvement in Nusselt number has been observed while
increase in fluid inlet temperature.
3.2. Pressure drop characteristics
The variation of pressure drop with Reynolds number at the inlet
temperatures of 20 °C, 30 °C and 40 °C are predicted in Figs. 9–11, re-
spectively. There is an increment in pressure drop with an increase in
Reynolds number. With the addition of nanoparticles in the base fluid,
pressure drop increases due to dual effects increasing viscosity and
density. As the MWCNT fraction in the hybrid nanofluid increases, the
pressure drop increases with a faster rate. Maximum pressure drop is
found 404.8 N/m2 at Reynolds number of 447 and inlet temperature of
20 °C for MWCNT/DI water working fluid. The enhancement of 51.2%
has been observed for MWCNT/DI water nanofluid when compared to
DI water. Such enhancement in pressure drop for MWCNT/DI water
may be due to its high surface area. Inlet temperature has a negative
effect on pressure drop due to a decrease in viscosity with temperature.
The reason for the decrease in viscosity with the temperature is
weakening of intermolecular force between molecules. Pressure drop
decreases with an inlet temperature of coolant from 20 °C to 40 °C. It is
a well-known fact that pressure drop increases with Reynolds number
for the same cross-section, but it is revealed from the Figs. 9–11 that the
points diverged at higher Reynolds number. It is understood by the fact
that pressure drop directly proportional to mass flux and viscosity, and
mass flux has dominance over viscosity at high Reynolds number.
Variation of friction factor with Reynold number is shown in Fig. 12
for inlet temperatures of 30 °C. As predicted, the friction factor de-
creases with increase in Reynold number is due to dual effects of
boundary layer thinning and mass velocity increase. Increase in visc-
osity and slip mechanism may be the reasons to increment in friction
factor with the addition of nanoparticles. Friction factor increases for
the hybrid nanofluids over base fluid. It has a higher value as the
concentration of MWCNT increases in the hybrid nanofluid due to its
high surface area. At Re = 149, the maximum value of friction factor
for MWCNT/DI water nanofluid is approximately 1.08. It is observed
from the figure that the deviation of friction factor for different working
fluids is significant at lower Reynolds number. This may be because of
at lower Reynolds number viscosity is predominant and it is attributed
by the fact that the viscosity increases with increase in MWCNT con-
centration due to particle surface area and interparticle attraction.
Another reason may be rupturing of the boundary layer is predominant
for MWCNT compared to Al2O3 nanoparticles. The friction factor de-
creases with the increase in temperature for the same Reynold number
due to a decrease in viscosity.
As predicted, there is a significant change of friction factor with the
variation of nanoparticle mixture ratio for hybrid nanofluids of same
total particle concentration. Hence, it can be concluded that the hybrid
nanofluid containing the mixture of dissimilar nanoparticles of different
shape and size will give different flow characteristics.
significantly higher than that at 0:5. Hence, it may be concluded that
the optimum mixture ratio is around 3:2 for the Al2O3-MWCNT
(spherical-cylindrical) nanoparticle combination in minichannel heat
sink. It is also observed that the optimum mixing ratio is not changing
with the flow rate (Reynolds number) and hence may be applicable for
other Reynolds number range also.
3.4. Performance evaluation criteria (PEC)
The heat transfer and pressure drop results do not provide the
correct conclusion individually that the usage of nanofluids is a good
option and vice-versa as both the heat transfer as well as pressure drop
increase by using nanofluids. Therefore, apart from h/pressure drop,
another comprehensive assessment factor called PEC (Performance
evaluation criteria) has been introduced. PEC is defined as,
Nuhnf Nubf
PEC =
(fhnf fbf )1 3
(12)
From Fig. 14, it is concluded that in all the cases PEC is above one.
So, it is interpreted that usage of nanofluid is effective as a coolant
compared to distilled water in minichannel heat sink. It can be con-
cluded enhancement in pressure drop is less remarkable compared to
improvement in heat transfer coefficient. Among all the nanofluids,
Al2O3 + CNT (0:5) has maximum PEC value. The maximum value of
PEC is 1.26 at higher Reynolds number. As CNT fraction is increasing in
the nanofluids, PEC value increases.
3.5. Proposed correlations
The proposed correlation for Nusselt number and friction factor are
derived based on the experimental results as follows, (150 ≤ Re ≤ 460,
6.84 ≤ Pr ≤ 7, Φ = 0.01%)
Nu = 0.3035Re 0.4407 Pr 0.36 (1 + R)0.317 (13)
f = 43.162Re−0.84807 (1 + R)0.65775 (14)
where R is defind as the ratio of CNT fraction (Φ2) to total Al2O3 + CNT
fraction (i.e. R = Φ2/(Φ1 + Φ2)). The range of R varies from 0 to 1.
Developed correlation for Nusselt number and friction factor has R-
square values of 98.8% and 96.3%, respectively. It can be illustrative
from Fig. 15 that proposed correlation and experimental values for Nu
are in good agreement. Correlation predicted all the experimental data
within the error range of +3% to −4.3%. The plot between predicted
friction factor and experimental friction factor is shown in Fig. 16. The

3.3. Effect of mixture ratio on h/Δp

The ratio of heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop with a

mixture ratio for different volume flow rates at an inlet temperature of
30 °C has been shown in Fig. 13. It is found that for the lower volume
flow rate, h/Δp ratio is maximum. As the MWCNT concentration in-
creases in the hybrid nanofluid, initially h/Δp ratio increases, after a
mixture ratio it starts decreasing. The optimum mixture ratio is found to
be around 3:2 after which the h/Δp ratio starts decreasing at a higher
rate. It is due to the fact that the pressure drop increases at a higher rate
as the concentration of MWCNT increases in the hybrid nanofluids. The
reason for the increase in pressure drop is because of its high specific
surface area due to the higher aspect ratio for MWCNT. After in-
corporation of error bar in the graph, it is observed that the value of h/ Fig. 12. Variation of Friction factor with Reynolds number (Inlet
pressure drop at 3:2 is slightly higher than that at 4:1 or 2:3 and Temperature = 30 °C).

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V. Kumar and J. Sarkar Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546

Fig. 16. Variation of Predicted friction factor with Experimental friction factor.
Fig. 13. Ratio of heat transfer coefficient to pressure drop (h/Δp) with the
mixture ratio.

Fig. 17. Deviation of proposed correlation with existing correlation for Nu.
Fig. 14. PEC with Re of hybrid nanofluids for different mixing ratio.
maximum error between the proposed correlation and experimental
data is lies between +12.5% and −12.5%.
The experimental data of Nusselt number obtained for Al2O3/DI
water nanofluid is compared with the proposed correlation (taking
R = 0) and existing correlations available in the literature as shown in
Fig. 17. The proposed correlation has same trends as existing correla-
tions [38,39] without good agreement. Experimental values have best
match with proposed correlation. The reason to support this deviation
between proposed correlation and existing correlations is that existing
correlations have developed for minichannel with dissimilar geometry
and heat flux condition.

4. Concluding remarks

In this paper, the hydrothermal characteristics of Al2O3-MWCNT

(completely different in nature) hybrid nanofluid in minichannel heat
sink have been experimentally investigated for volume concentration of
0.01% at different particle ratios (5:0 to 0:5), Reynolds number
(140 < Re < 4 6 0) and the inlet temperatures (20 °C, 30 °C and 40 °C).
From the results and discussion, the following conclusions can be made:
Fig. 15. Variation of Predicted Nu with Experimental Nu.
• With the increase in inlet temperature from 20 °C to 40 °C and na-
noparticle dispersion in the base fluid, convective heat transfer

9
V. Kumar and J. Sarkar Applied Thermal Engineering 165 (2020) 114546

coefficient and Nusselt number increase due to enhancement of
thermal properties due to temperature increases.
• With the Reynolds number and nanoparticle dispersion in the base
fluid, pressure drop and friction factor increase due to dual effects
increasing viscosity and density, whereas decreases with inlet tem-
perature because of decrease in viscosity. Viscosity decreases due to
cohesion force between molecules decreases as temperature in-
creases. Maximum pressure drop increment is 51.2% for MWCNT/
DI water nanofluid compared to DI water.
Appendix B. Supplementary material
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114546.
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