Ethylene glycol (EG)-based nanofluids as a coolant for automotive radiator

摘要

Abstract In this paper, the cooling capabilities of an ethylene glycol (EG)-based nanofluid containing three different types of nanoparticles: copper oxide (CuO), aluminium oxide (Al~(2)O~(3)), and titanium dioxide (TiO~(2)) are investigated. Nanofluids have enhanced thermophysical properties, hence they can be used in a plethora mechanical and engineering applications such as nanofluid coolant: electronics cooling, vehicle cooling, transformer cooling, computers cooling and electronic devices cooling. A model depicting the vertical fluid flow in a radiator is formulated. Using appropriate similarity transformation and shooting quadrature coupled with Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg integration scheme, the model boundary value problem is tackled numerically. A parametric study of the entire flow regime is carried out to illustrate the effects of the pertinent parameters on the velocity, temperature, skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number. It is clear that CuO–EG nanofluids lead to a rapid decrease of temperature at the boundary layer.