Pressure drop of TiO 2 nanofluid in circular pipes

Abstract

This paper discusses the pressure drop in circular pipes of TiO 2/water nanofluid for both laminar and turbulent flows at different temperatures and TiO 2 weight fractions. This study shows that TiO 2/water nanofluid causes enhancement, but temperature rise reduces pressure drop. The proportional increase in pressure drop for turbulent flow is lower than that for laminar flow. The traditional equation for pressure drop fails to accurately estimate the pressure drop for laminar and turbulent flows. Accordingly, this study developed new empirical equations for the friction factor for both laminar and turbulent flows, and the maximum deviations between calculated and experimental results were reduced to within the ranges of −6.17% to 3.55% and −3.08% to 3.81%, respectively, that is, for TiO 2/water nanofluid, the correlations apply better to turbulent than to laminar flow.