Heat transfer and presser drop of copper oxide–thermal oil in upward single-phase flow in inclined microfin tube under constant wall temperature

Abstract

The effects of using copper oxide–thermal oil on convective heat transfer and pressure drop in an upward flow in an inclined microfin tube is studied experimentally in this research project. The flow regime and wall temperature are laminar and constant, respectively. The effects of nanofluid, Graetz number, Prandtl number and positive inclination angles on convective heat transfer augment moderately with the boom in nanoparticles mass concentration. The result shows that the forced heat transfer and Darcy friction factor increase with the increment of mass nanoparticle concentration, Reynolds number and inclination angle. The ratio of Darcy friction factor increases up to 64% in microfin tube. The Nusselt number boosts to reach 62 when mass nanoparticle concentration and inclination angle were 1.5% and 30o, respectively. Two correlations are advised to estimate Nusselt number and Darcy friction factor in upward single-phase flow in microfin tube under constant wall temperature and laminar flow in microfin pipe. The maximum aberrations of Nusselt number and Darcy friction factor are 20% and 18%, respectively, which are admissible to predict experimental data. Accompaniment of heat transfer ratio with pumping power ratio is presented in this paper. If the increment of pressure drop is more than heat transfer enhancement, it will not be appropriate to use CuO-thermal oil, inclination angles and microfin tube. The maximum FOM is 59% which is calculated with 1.5% nanoparticle mass concentration and inclination angle of 60o at Prandtl number of 349.