Abstract
Coolants play a major role in the performance of heat exchanging systems. In a marine gas turbine engine, an intercooler is used to reduce the compressed gas temperature between the compressor stages. The thermophysical properties of the coolant running within the intercooler directly influence the level of enhancement in the performance of the unit. Therefore, employing working fluids of exceptional thermal properties is beneficial for improving performance in such applications, compared to conventional fluids. This paper investigates the effect of utilizing nanofluids for enhancing the performance of a marine gas turbine intercooler. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)-water with nanofluids at 0.01–0.10 vol % concentration were produced using a two-step controlled-temperature approach ranging from 10 °C to 50 °C. Next, the thermophysical properties of the as-prepared suspensions, such as density, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, and viscosity, were characterized. The intercooler performance was then determined by employing the measured data of the MWCNTs-based nanofluids thermophysical properties in theoretical formulae. This includes determining the intercooler effectiveness, heat transfer rate, gas outlet temperature, coolant outlet temperature, and pumping power. Finally, a comparison between a copper-based nanofluid from the literature with the as-prepared MWCNTs-based nanofluid was performed to determine the influence of each of these suspensions on the intercooler performance.
Highlights
For many years, scientists have attempted to improve the thermal performance of heat transfer devices to lower their overall energy consumption and/or reduce their constructional scale
In the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis performed on the as-received Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) powder, the electromagnetic beam that is emitted from the X-ray source is reflected by the crystalline plane
By comparing the diffraction pattern obtained from the performed analysis (Figure 3) with other published works, such as Palanisamy and Kumar [34] and Sandhu and Gangacharyulu [35], it was noticed that similar results were acquired, the as-received powder is
Summary
Scientists have attempted to improve the thermal performance of heat transfer devices to lower their overall energy consumption and/or reduce their constructional scale. HEs as well as altering the flow arrangement of the working fluids (e.g., parallel flow, crossflow, and counterflow arrangements) and pass arrangements (i.e., one- or multipass) [2] All of these previous methods have come to the point were limited enhancement in the thermal performance can be gained, and as such the focus of researchers today has shifted towards advancing the working fluid itself (i.e., exploring innovative fluids of higher thermal properties) [3]. These particles have orders of magnitude higher thermal conductivity than their hosting environment and increase the overall thermal conductivity
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