Experimental investigation of heat transfer enhancement in helical coil heat exchangers using water based CuO nanofluid

Abstract

The present work deals with the study of heat transfer enhancement using water based CuO nanofluids in the helical coil heat exchanger. Nanofluids were prepared using two-step method by using wet chemical method. Nanofluids with various volume percentage between 0 and 0.5 of CuO nanoparticles and their flow rate between 30 and 80 LPH (Reynolds number ranging from 812 to 1895, Laminar flow regime) were considered in the present study. The setup consists of a test section (helical coil), cooler, reservoir, pump, flow meter, thermocouples and flow controlling system. The temperature measurements were carried out with the help of thermocouples. The investigation was carried out to study the effect of particle loading and flow rate on heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number. It has been found that the increase in the loading of CuO nanoparticles in base fluid shows a significant enhancement in the heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid. In the present study, at 0.1vol% concentration of CuO nanoparticles in nanofluid, enhancement in heat transfer coefficient was 37.3% as compared to base fluid while at 0.5vol%, it is as high as 77.7%. Also with the increase in the flow rate of the CuO nanofluid, significant increase in heat transfer coefficient was observed.