Improving the Effectiveness of a Heat Exchanger using Nanofluids

摘要

Nanofluids are new class of heat transfer fluids developed by suspending nano sized (1-100nm) solid particles in liquids. They have higher thermal conductivity and heat transfer coefficients than their base fluids. Numbers of models are available in the literature to estimate the thermo physical properties of nanofluids. Various models have been used for the estimation of thermophysical properties of nanofluids. Analyses have been carried out on a double pipe, counter flow heat exchanger to study the effect of using nanofluids on the performance. It is observed that the effectiveness of the heat exchanger can be increased by 19% with copper - water nanofluid at a volume fraction of 5%. This enhancement in effectiveness can be achieved without significant increase in pumping power.