A second law analysis on flow of a PCM based nanofluid in a shell-and-tube heat exchanger: An experimental study for sustainable energy

Abstract

In the foreseeable future, heat exchangers will continue to play an important role in environmental management and have numerous applications, their geometry has been the subject of interest for many researchers. The main goal of this research is to improve the heat exchangers' thermal performance and exergetic efficiency using new type of nanofluid. In this concept, the effect of nanoencapsulated phase change material (NEPCM) addition to water and producing NEPCM nanofluid for heat transfer augmentation in shell and tube heat exchanger (STHE) was investigated, experimentally. Nanocapsules were synthesized by miniemulsion polymerization containing phase change material (PCM) as core and chitosan (GO/CS) as shell material. After synthesis of nanocapsules, nanofluids with different concentration of NEPCM have been prepared and the stability and thermophysical properties of the nanofluids were characterized. In the subsequent stage, thermal and exergy efficiencies test was conducted on STHE using response surface method. The experiments were performed at different conditions; NPCM concentration (φ), inlet temperature (Tin) and Re number to optimse exergy efficiency. The optimum level of the φ, Tin and Re inlet for maximum ɛ (73 %) were found to be 10.55 %, 78.35 °C and 10365, respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that proposed nanofluid could enhance exergy efficiency for thermal system. It appears that a combination of NEPCM nanofluids gives a better cooling rate in the heat exchangers and could be a promising alternative along with other cooling techniques.