CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER AND POWER SAVING APPLICATION OF SI BASED NANOPARTICLES IN A CIRCULAR PIPE

Abstract

A numerical study of laminar forced convection heat transfer for the fully developed region inside a circular pipe filled with Si based nanoparticle is presented for investigating the parameters of heat transfer. Four Si based nanoparticles Si, SiC, SiO2, Si3N4 with 1-5% volume fraction have been mixed with water to prepare nanofluids which is used for working fluid to flow over a circular pipe with 5mm diameter and 700mm length. Heat transfer characteristics and pumping power have been calculated at fully developed region with constant heat flux condition on pipe wall to identify the heat transfer enhancement ratio and pumping power reduction ratio among base fluid water and each nanofluids. It is worth mentioning that utilizing SiC nanoparticle shows not only the highest increment of Nusselt number and convective heat transfer coefficient but also the highest decrement of pumping power requirement and FOM in comparison to the base fluid.