Experimental investigation of convective heat transfer of nanofluids

Abstract

Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Turkey, 19-21 July, 2010.

Nanofluids, i.e. fluid suspensions of nanometer-sized particles and fibers, have been currently proposed as a method for increasing the performance of heat transfer in nanofluids and the effect of nanoparticles on convective heat transfer coefficient and different results are attained. Present work is about the design and manufacturing an experimental set up to study the enhancement of heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid on laminar convective heat transfer. Forced convection heat transfer of water-A1203, water-TiO2 and water-Si02 nanofluids inside a circular tube with uniform heat flux was investigated experimentally. Experimental results emphasize the enhancement of heat transfer due to the nanoparticles presence in the fluid. Values of Nusselt number were obtained and these results have been introduced by experimental correlations.