Effect of Flow Rate and Concentration of Water / TiO2 Nanofluid on the Performance of Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Nowadays, nanofluids are plays a prominent role in enhancing the mechanism of the heat transfer. However, some nanofluids could have adverse impact on environment. The main objective of this work is to experimentally investigate the improvement of mixing nanoparticle (Titanium Oxide in this case) with the conventional fluid (water) on the heat exchanger performance. Various concertation of the nanoparticle and different flow rates of nanofluid are tested to observe the variation of the Number of Transfer Unit (NTU) as well as the exchanger effectiveness. Exchanger/Environment interaction is also of interest in the study. The heat transfer between the exchanger and the atmosphere is quantified at different flowrates. Results shows that presence of nanoparticle does improve the exchanger performance and such enhancement is augmented with the increase in the flowrate of the nanofluid. Mixing more particles of TiO2 ameliorates the energy interaction of the hot/cold fluids. Nevertheless, the loss of heat to the atmosphere is shown to increase.