CFD Analysis of Heat Transfer Performance of

Carboxyl Graphene And Graphene Oxide

Nanoparticls based Nanofluids in Radiators

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE
DEGREE OF MASTER OF ENGINEERING
IN ENGINEERING DESIGN
OF THE ANNA UNIVERSITY

MINI PROJECT

Submitted by
KARTHICK RAJ.P
2072107

2021
Under the Guidance of
Dr. N. NANDAKUMAR

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
(An Autonomous Institution affiliated to Anna University)
COIMBATORE - 641 013
 DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
(An Autonomous Institution affiliated to Anna University)
COIMBATORE - 641 013

MINI PROJECT.

JULY 2021

This is to certify that this project work entitled

CFD Analysis of Heat Transfer Performance of Carboxyl Graphene And

Graphene Oxide Nanoparticls based Nanofluids in Radiators

is the bonafide record of project work done by

Karthickraj.P

2072107

of M.E. (Engineering Design) during the year 2020 - 2021

______________ ______________ ______________

Dr. N. NANDAKUMAR Dr. N. NANDAKUMAR Dr. N. NANDAKUMAR

Project Guide Programme Coordinator Head of the Department

Submitted for the Project Viva-Voce examination held on ________________________

Internal Examiner External Examiner

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

i
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank the Almighty for always being on my side and providing me
with strength and capability to face all types of situations during this project tenure.

I have immense pleasure in expressing my hearty thanks to Dr. P. THAMARAI,

M.E., Ph.D., Principal, Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, for the facility
made available for the completion of this thesis work.

I express my deep sense of gratitude and heartful thanks to my project guide and
Head of the department Dr. N. NANDAKUMAR, M.E., Ph.D., Professor of the Mechanical
Engineering, for his valuable guidance with constant encouragement, motivation and help
right from deciding the topic, finalizing the thesis work and taking necessary corrections
which triggered me to a great extent in completing the thesis work successfully.

I acknowledge with thanks the kind of patronage and timely guidance, which I have
received from my Faculty Advisor Dr. S. PERIYASAMY, M.E., Ph.D., Associate Professor
of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

I am thankful to all other teaching and the non – teaching members of the
Department of Engineering Design for their timely help and valuable suggestions.

I am very much indebted to my beloved parents and friends for their love, support
and encouragement.

KARTHICKRAJ.P

ii
`

SYNOPSIS
iii
 SYNOPSIS

For Improved performance of an automobile engine, Cooling systems are one of

the critical systems that need attention. With increased capacity to carry away large
amounts of wasted heat, performance of an engine is increased. Current research
on Nano-fluids suggests that they offer higher heat transfer rate compared to that
of conventional coolants. Hence this project seeks to investigate the use of
hybridnanofluids in radiators so as to increase its heat transfer performance.
Carboxyl Graphene and Graphene Oxide based nanoparticles were selected due
to the very high thermal conductivity of Graphene. System Analysis of the radiator
was performed by considering a small part of the whole automobile radiator
modelled using NX CAD. CFD analysis was conducted using ANSYS for the
nanofluid defined and the increase in effectiveness was compared to that of
conventional coolants. Usage of such nanofluids for a fixed cooling requirement in
the future can lead to significant downsizing of the radiator.

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
v
CHAPTER NO TITLE PAGE NO

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION 2
1.2 NANOFLUIDS 3

2 LITRATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION 6
2.2 REVIEW OF 6
LITERATURE

3 MATHEMATICAL MODELLING
3.1 MATHEMATICAL MODELLING 9
OF HYBRID NANOFLUIDS

4 CFD THEORY AND EQUATION

4.1 CFD THEORY AND EQUATION 12
4.2 MESH INDEPENDENCE STUDY 12

5 MODELLING AND PROCEDURE

5.1 MODELLING 14

6 CFD ANALYSIS
6.1 CFD ANALYSIS 17

7 DISCUSSON OF CFD ANALYSIS

7.1 VARTION OF FLUID AND 19
AND AIR TEMPERATURE
7.2 EFFECTIVENESS 20

8 CONCLUSION 23

9 REFERENCE 25

vi
 LIST OF FIGURES

vii
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO FIGURE NAME PAGE NO

1 MODEL OF THE ENTIRE RADIATOR 14

GENERATED USING NX11

2 ENLARGED VIEW OF THE RADIATOR 15

3 THE TYPICAL ELEMENT CONSIDERED 15

FOR ANALYSIS

4 VARIATION OF NANOFLUID ALONG THE 19

LENGTH OF THE TUBE

5 CONTOUR PLOT OF THE TEMPERATURE 19

DISTRIBUTION ALONG THE REGION
OF THE AIR FLOW

6 TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION AT 20
AIR INLET

7 TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION AT 20
AIR OUTLET

viii
 LIST OF TABLES
ix
 LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO NAME OF TABLE PAGE NO

1 PROPERTIES OF THE NANOPARTICLES 10

AND BASE FLUID USED

2 MESH INDEPENDENCE STUDY 12

3 SPECIFICATION OF THE RADIATOR 14

USED

4 INPUT CONDITION CONSIDERED 17

x
 INTRODUCTION
1
1.1.INTRODUCTION

In recent years, a novel class of working fluids which consists from two solid
materials dispersed in a conventional fluid was developed and intensely studied.
These fluids are called hybrid nanofluids. This paper presents a review of the
research recent results concerning the thermo-physical properties (thermal
conductivity, viscosity, density and specific heat) and the heat transfer and flow
characteristics of hybrid nanofluids used in various heat exchangers. The hybrid
nanofluids leads to an increased thermal conductivity and finally to a heat transfer
enhancement in heat exchangers. Experimental and numerical results shown in
this review indicate that the hybrid nanofluids are working fluids which could
improve significantly the heat transfer in heat exchangers, but, there are still
needed research concerning to the study of different combinations of hybrid
nanoparticles, their mixing ratio, the stability of the hybrid nanofluids, and the
understanding the mechanisms which contribution to the heat transfer
enhancement.

Since diluted suspensions of nanoparticles were first called nanofluids and

presented as viable solutions for heat transfer applications, this subject has
received much attention and related investigations have expanded to many paths.
In order to comprehend how nanoscale-related effects could influence the
macroscopic transport behavior of nanofluids under single or phase-change
conditions, researchers have studied, for example, the stability of these solutions,
variation of thermal and rheological properties, and the convective heat transfer
behavior of a great variety of nanofillers in common fluids, mainly water. The
deposition of nanofillers over heated surfaces has also been investigated due to
the role of surface nanostructuring in modifying wettability, thermal resistance, and
delaying the occurrence of critical heat flux.

Despite the considerable number of publications regarding nanofluids, scattered

results for transport properties or convective behavior of nanofluids under similar
experimental conditions are often found, which hinders their applications due to a
lack of comprehension on the mechanisms related to the behavior of these fluids
and, consequently, to the difficulty in predicting it. In this context, this work

2
concerns a review about the heat transfer behavior of nanofluids under single-
phase flow, pool boiling, and flow boiling conditions. In general, there is a
consensus that the heat transfer coefficient of single-phase flow is enhanced by
the addition of nanoparticles to base fluids, although overall benefits of their
application cannot be assured due to increases in viscosity. In contrast, either
increase or decrease in heat transfer coefficient could be observed for pool and
flow boiling conditions. Such behavior can be attributed to surface modifications
due to interactions between the bare surface texture and the deposited
nanoparticles; however, information on the surface texture is commonly missing in
most works. Finally, the main mechanisms reported in the literature pointed out as
responsible for the heat transfer coefficient behaviors are summarized, where it
can be seen that modifications of transport properties and particles movements
impact single-phase flow, while phase-change heat transfer is also influenced by
variations of surface characteristics.

1.2 NANOFLUIDS

A nanofluid is a fluid containing nanometer-sized particles, called nanoparticles.

These fluids are engineered colloidal suspensions of nanoparticles in a base fluid.
The nanoparticles used in nanofluids are typically made of metals, oxides,
carbides, or carbon nanotubes. Common base fluids include water, ethylene
glycol and oil.

Nanofluids have novel properties that make them potentially useful in many
applications in heat transfer, including microelectronics, fuel cells, pharmaceutical
processes, and hybrid-powered engines, engine cooling/vehicle thermal
management, domestic refrigerator, chiller, heat exchanger, in grinding, machining
and in boiler flue gas temperature reduction. They exhibit enhanced thermal
conductivity and the convective heat transfer coefficient compared to the base
fluid. Knowledge of the rheological behaviour of nanofluids is found to be critical in
deciding their suitability for convective heat transfer applications. Nanofluids also
have special acoustical properties and in ultrasonic fields display additional shear-
wave reconversion of an incident compressional wave; the effect becomes more
pronounced as concentration increases.

3
In analysis such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD), nanofluids can be
assumed to be single phase fluids; however, almost all new academic papers use
a two-phase assumption. Classical theory of single phase fluids can be applied,
where physical properties of nanofluid is taken as a function of properties of both
constituents and their concentrations. An alternative approach simulates
nanofluids using a two-component model.

The spreading of a nanofluid droplet is enhanced by the solid-like ordering

structure of nanoparticles assembled near the contact line by diffusion, which gives
rise to a structural disjoining pressure in the vicinity of the contact line. However,
such enhancement is not observed for small droplets with diameter of nanometer
scale, because the wetting time scale is much smaller than the diffusion time scale.

4
LITERATURE REVIEW
5
2.1. INTRODUCTION

The journals are collected from Elsevier (science direct) related to nanofluds. In
this study totally 15 papers are collected for nanofluids. Nanofluids have been
considered for applications as advanced heat transfer fluids for almost two
decades. However, due to the wide variety and the complexity of the nanofluid
systems, no agreement has been achieved on the magnitude of potential benefits
of using nanofluids for heat transfer applications.

2.2.REVIEW OF LITERATURE

With increase in demand for high power and high performance in automobiles,
there is a renewed focus on developing better cooling systems and coolants.Today
with the advancement of nanotechnology, the new generation of heat transfer fluids
called, “Nano-fluids” have been developed and it has been found that these fluids
offer higher heat transfer rate compared to that of conventional coolants as shown
initially by Choi [1].

Current research shows that using two types of nanoparticles in the nanofluid to
form a Hybrid-Nanofluid yields better results.

According to Sarkar et al. [2] the idea of using hybrid nanofluids is supported by
an aim to improve heat transfer and pressure drop, by trade-off between pros and
cons of individual suspension.

Suresh et al. [3] has found a maximum enhancement of 12.11 percent in thermal
conductivity of a Al2O3-Cu/water hybrid nanofluid. The Al2O3-Cu particles were
prepared from hydrogen reduction technique.

The use of graphene based nanoparticles has also attracted a lot of attention due
to the very high thermal conductivity of graphene particles. In Gupta et al. [4]
enhancement of thermal conductivity of nanofluids containing graphene
nanosheets was studied.

The enhancement which was substantial even at lower temperatures could not be
predicted by the classical Maxwell model. It also makes a very strong case for

6
proposition of a hybrid model because possibly the mechanisms of heat transfer
are a combination of percolation in CNT and Brownian motion, micro convection in
metal oxides. Graphene and MWCNT’s have been used to prepare a hybrid
nanofluid by Aravind et al. [5] and Enhancement of thermal conductivity of 10.5%
and a staggering 193% enhancement of convective heat transfer coefficient for
0.02%volume fraction and Re = 2000 were observed.

A CFD modelling of MgO-water nanofluid in turbulent flow has been studied by

Davarnejadet al.[6] In a Numerical Resizing study of CuO nanofluids in the flat
tubes of a radiator by Elsebayet al.[7]

analysis was done considering incompressible, laminar and single-phase flow. A

Numerical study on turbulent forced convective heat transfer using TiO2 nanofluids
in an automotive cooling system can also be seen in Hussein et al.[8].

With the different combination of volumetric concentration of grapheme nanofluid,

NizaAhammed et al. [15] achieved 37.2% enhancement in thermal conductivity
value with 1.5% concentrated nanofluid. However as there has not been much
literature on using Carboxyl Graphene and Graphene Oxide nanoparticles in
Hybrid-nanofluids, in this paper a CFD Analysis using Carboxyl Graphene and
Graphene Oxide Hybrid-nanofluid in an automobile radiator using ANSYS is
presented.

7
Mathematical Modelling
8
3.1 Mathematical Modelling of the Hybrid-Nanofluid

The mathematical modelling for different properties of the Hybrid-Nanofluid was

done based on Sahoo et al.[9]. Thermal conductivity of the hybrid-nanofluid is given
by

are the thermal conductivities of the hybrid nanofluid,base

fluid,carboxyl graphene and graphene oxide, ϕnp1,ϕnp2and ϕ are volume
concentrations of carboxyl graphene, graphene oxide and the hybrid nanofluid.
Heat transfer coefficient is expressed as

where, the heat transfer coefficient, hydraulic diameter at the inlet

of the nanofluid and Nusselt number for hybrid nanofluid respectively where Nu
has also been proposed by [9] as,

which is a function of Reynolds number, Prandtl Number and concentration of

nanoparticles. The same for base fluid taking into account friction factor,f is given
by,

9
The properties of nanoparticles for 0.8-1.6 nm Carboxyl Graphene produced
through chemical vapour deposition and 0.8-2 nm thick Graphene Oxide
Nanoparticles manufactured by Hummer’s method by United Nanotech Pvt. Ltd,
India were used and are as shown in table 1.

10
CFD Theory and Equation
11
4.1 CFD Theory and Equations

The CFD approach uses numerical methods to solve the governing equations for
the specified geometry and boundary conditions. Single-phase flow was
considered [10] for analysis using ANSYS FLUENT 16.2 [11]

4.2 Mesh Independence Study

Meshes of varying element sizes were generated during meshing as shown in table
2. The coarse mesh had 2144005 elements, medium and fine meshes generated
2412218 and 2855211 elements respectively. The difference in fluid outlet
temperatures from medium to fine type of mesh was found to be negligible. In order
to save computational resources and time the medium mesh was selected and
CFD analysis was carried out.

Table 2. Mesh independence study

12
Modelling and Procedure
13
5.1. Modelling

A radiator from a Tata-Indica Car, which is widely used in India was considered
and the specifications are as shown in table2

Table 3 Specifications of the radiator used

The model was generated using NX 11 and is shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.
However, to save time and computation the analysis was done by considering a
typical element based on fin pitch and tube pitch of radiatoras shown in Figure
3.The model was meshed in ANSYS Workbench. FLUENT was used for CFD
analysis.

Figure 1. Model of the entire radiator generated using NX 11

14
 Figure 2. Enlarged view of the radiator

Figure 3. The typical element considered for analysis

15
 CFD Analysis
16
6.1 CFD Analysis

The Hybrid-Nanofluid is considered incompressible [7,12]The flow is assumed to

be laminar as in [7] and [10]. A single-phase fluid approach as shown by [13] is
made use of. For the case of a viscous laminar model, the SIMPLE scheme was
used. The nanofluid inlet is specified as a mass flow inlet corresponding to volume
flow rates of 4,5 and 6 LPM in the whole radiator at a temperature of 500C which
are typical values in an automobile radiator. The air inlet is specified as a velocity
inlet with velocity of 1.5m/s.

Table 4. Input conditions considered

17
DISCUSSION OF CFD ANALYSIS
18
7.1 Variation of fluid and air temperatures

Figure 4 shows the plot of temperature drop of the fluid along the length of the tube
for a flow rate of 4 LPM. It can be seen that there is a temperature drop of 0.251
0C which when extrapolated to the whole length of the tube of the radiator turns
out to be 10.93 0C. Figure 5,6 and 7 show the contour plots of temperature along
the region of air flow, at air inlet, air outlet respectively a flow rate of 4LPM with
2%Cg and 2%GO nanoparticles. It can be seen that after absorbing heat from the
fins the temperature of air at the inlet increases significantly.

Figure 4 Variation of nanofluid temperature along the length of the tube

Figure 5 Contour Plot of the temperature (in Kelvin) distribution along the region
of air flow
19
 Figure 6. Temperature (in Kelvin) distribution at air inlet

Figure 7. Temperature (in Kelvin) distribution at the air outlet

7.2 Effectiveness

The effectiveness of the radiator is calculated by using the formula, [14]

Where,T1,T2andT3are the temperatures at the fluid inlet, fluid outlet and ambient
air respectively. Figure. 8 shows the variation of effectiveness vs. concentrations
of the hybrid nanofluid at different flow rates. Effectiveness increases gradually as
the concentration of nanoparticles increase from 2%(1% CG & 1%GO) to 6%(3%
20
CG & 3%GO) at a constant fluid flow rate. This is due to higher thermal conductivity
of nanofluid as compared to that base-fluid. It can be seen that for a flow rate of 4
LPM a maximum increase of 10% in effectiveness upon addition of 3% Carboxyl
Graphene and 3% Graphene Oxide was obtained as compared to the base fluid.
However, as effectiveness depends on NTU, increase in convective heat transfer
coefficient is less as compared to increase in flow rate of nanofluid. Hence
Effectiveness decreases with increasing flow rate

21
 CONCLUSION
22
8.CONCLUSION

In this study effect of using Carboxyl-Graphene and Graphene-Oxide nanoparticles

in automobile radiators at 1%, 2%, 3% volume concentration of each of the
nanoparticles for different flow rates of 4,5 and 6 LPM was studied through a
numerical approach. The analysis of fluid flow in a radiator can be done by
assuming a laminar flow as the results match with the experimental results.From
the results obtained, it is clear that addition of graphene oxide and carboxyl
graphene will enhance the heat transfer performance of the radiator by increasing
the heat transfer. However there is a slight increase in the pumping power required
as fiction factor increases upon addition of nanoparticles.With high amounts of heat
transfer the size of the radiator may be reduced, which provides a higher
performance to weight ratio and better cooling to engine. If the problem of
agglomeration at the actual temperatures in an automobile can be overcome or
reduced by future research, this type of hybrid-nanofluid is ideal to be used in the
automotive radiator yielding the best effectiveness when used in the proper
concentration

23
 REFERENCES
24
9. References

[1] Choi Sus, Zhang ZuYuw, Lock Wood F and Grulke E A (2001), “Anamolous
Thermal Conductivity Enhancement in Nano Tube Suspensions”, Appl. Phys.
Let., Vol. 79, p. 2252.

[2] Sarkar, Jahar, Pradyumna Ghosh, and ArjumandAdil. (2015): "A review on
hybrid nanofluids: recent research, development and applications." Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews 431pp 64-177.

[3] Suresh, S., et al. (2011)"Synthesis of Al 2 O +–Cu/water hybrid nanofluids

using two step method and its thermo physical properties." Colloids and Surfaces
A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects 388.1 pp 41-48.

[4] SoujitSen Gupta, V. Manoj Siva, Sreenath Krishnan, T. S. Sreeprasad, Pawan

K. Singh et al.(2011)"Thermal conductivity enhancement of nanofluids containing
graphene nanosheets" J. Appl. Phys. 110, 084302; doi: 10.1063/1.3650456

[5] Aravind, S. S. Jyothirmayee and Ramaprabhu, S,(2013) "Graphene-

multiwalled carbon nanotube-based nanofluids for improved heat dissipation”,
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[6] Reza Davarnejad, Maryam Jamshidzadeh,2015,” CFDmodeling of heat

transfer performance of MgO-water nanofluid under turbulent flow”, In
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[7] Elsebay M, Elbadawy, Shedid, M.H. and Fatouh, M., 2016, "Numerical
resizing study of Al2O3 and CuO nanofluids in the flat tubes of a radiator”,
Journal of Applied Mathematical Modelling ,volume 40, 13-14, pp 6437-6450.

[8] M Hussein, R A Bakar, K Kadirgama, K V Sharma, 2013 "Simulation study

of turbulent convective heat transfer enhancement in heated tube flow using
TiO2-water nanofluid “, SP - 012035, JF - IOP Conference Series: Materials
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[9] Sahoo, Rashmi R.; Sarkar, Jahar,2016“Heat transfer performance

characteristics of hybrid nanofluids as coolant in louvered fin automotive
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[10] PG Oosthuizen, D Naylor, Introduction to Convective Heat Transfer

Analysis, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1999

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[11] ANSYS FLUENT 16.2, User guide, ANSYS Inc, Southpointe, Canonsburg

[12] R.S. Vajjha, D.K. Das, P.K. Namburu, 2010“Numerical study of fluid
dynamic and heat transfer performance of Al2O3 and CuO nanofluids in the flat
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[13] A. Akbarinia, A. Behzadmehr,2007 Numerical study of laminar mixed

convection of a nanofluid in horizontal curved tubes, In Applied Thermal
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[14] Frank P. Incropera, David P. DeWitt, Theodore L. Bergman, Adrienne S.

Lavine,2006 “Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer”,6th Edition.

[15] NizarAhammed, Lazarus Godson Asirvatham, Joel Titus, Jefferson Raja

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