Experimental investigation on single cylinder 4-stroke diesel engine using nanofluids as a coolant to compact the system

Abstract

Recent power sectors associated with an internal combustion engine had a crucial challenge to reduce the size and weight of the thermal management system of internal combustion engines. This work aims to reduce the size and weight of the internal combustion engine cooling system by utilizing particular types of working medium as a coolant in place of traditional ones. In this study, the effects of water base CuO nano-coolant on cooling performance, fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency, etc. of single-cylinder water-cooled diesel engines have been investigated. The two-step method was used to prepare five different weight concentrations (i.e. 0.5%, 0.75%, 1.0%, 1.25% & 1.5%) of water-based CuO nano-coolants. The purpose of this study is to examine the heat loss in cooling media and effects of heat loss in cooling media on engine performance under different load conditions with water based CuO nanofluid. The increment of fuel consumption, decrement of brake thermal efficiency, and enhancement of cooling performance are the functions of % weight concentrations of nanofluid. The experimental results showed that, at pick load condition, the cooling performance was increased by 15.53%, 20.71%, 30.86%, 36.39%, and 42.22% for the addition of 0.5%, 0.75%, 1%, 1.25%, and 1.5% weight concentrations of CuO nanoparticles with pure water, respectively. From the experimental results, it was observed that 0.75 wt% CuO/water nanofluid is the best nano-coolant because the engine consumed more fuel and produced low efficiency at high % weight concentrations of nanoparticles. This effect creates the chance of reducing the water jacket area for a constant heat transfer which makes a lighter cooling system.