Experimental Research on Heat Transfer Characteristics of CuO Nanofluid in Adiabatic Condition

Abstract

The laminar convective heat transfer behavior of CuO nanoparticle dispersions in glycol with the average particle sizes (about 70 nm) was investigated experimentally in a flow loop with constant heat flux. To enhance heat exchange under high temperature condition and get the more accurate data, we try to improve the traditional experimental apparatus which is used to test nanofluid heat transfer characteristics. In the experiment five different nanoparticle concentrations (0.25%, 0.50%, 0.80%, 1.20%, and 1.50%) were investigated in a flow loop with constant heat flux. The experimental results show that the heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid becomes higher than that of pure fluid at the same Reynolds number and increased with the increasing of the mass fraction of CuO nanoparticles. Results also indicate that at very low volume concentrations nanofluid has no major impact on heat transfer parameters and the pressure of nanofluids increased by the mass fraction increase.