Heat transfer behaviour of nanofluids in a uniformly heated circular tube fitted with helical inserts in laminar flow

Abstract

The CFD simulation of heat transfer characteristics of a nanofluid in a circular tube fitted with helical twist inserts under constant heat flux has been explained using Fluent version 6.3.26 in laminar flow. Al 2O 3 nanoparticles in water of 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% concentrations and helical twist inserts of twist ratios 2.93, 3.91 and 4.89 has been used for the simulation. All thermophysical properties of nanofluids are temperature dependent. The heat transfer enhancement increases with Reynolds number and decreases with twist ratio with maximum for the twist ratio 2.93. By comparing the heat transfer rates of water and nanofluids, the increase in Nusselt number is 5%–31% for different helical inserts and different volume concentrations. The maximum heat transfer enhancement is 31.29% for helical insert of twist ratio 2.93 and for the volume concentration of 1.5% corresponding to the Reynolds number of 2039. The data obtained by simulation match with the literature value of water with the discrepancy of less than ±10% for plain tube and tube fitted with helical tape inserts for Nusselt number.