Impact of functional nanofluid coolant on radiator performance

Abstract

While a number of liquids are preferred in many heating and cooling applications, their thermal capacity can be a limiting factor in many thermal systems. Therefore, a series of methods such as use of mixtures of two or more fluids, emulsions, phase change materials, and more recently nanoparticle enriched fluids have been proposed. The impact of adding aluminum and copper nanoparticles to water in a closed-loop radiator has been investigated analytically and numerically. Heat transfer performances of different working fluids are studied under the same boundary conditions. The analytical and numerical models including external and internal flow domains of the radiator have been developed, and free convection air cooling has been considered over external surfaces of a radiator. Both plain and nanoparticle added fluid cases are analyzed individually to differentiate the impact over heat transfer. The results indicate that the presence of nanoparticles effectively raised the convective heat transfer coefficient and thus the performance of the radiator system increased by 2.1% and 0.6%, respectively, in comparison to plain water operating condition. Furthermore, the radiator tube length has been shortened by 2.0% and 0.75% for both Al and Cu nanoparticle filled fluid, respectively, to obtain the same thermal performance at a single tube. The total required heat transfer surface area is also reduced by 2.0% and 1.15% for Al and Cu, respectively. Finally, a comparison between analytical and numerical models has been found to be in a good agreement of heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number.