Thermo-economic performance and sensitivity analysis of ternary hybrid nanofluids

Abstract

The thermo-economic performance of the Al2O3-TiO2-Cu/water ternary hybrid nanofluid was investigated experimentally. The shear stress, viscosity, and thermal conductivity were measured at 0.005–1 vol% over temperature range of 20–60 °C. The morphology and stability of nanofluids were characterized by SEM and UV–Vis spectrophotometer analyses. To obtain the optimum nanoparticle mixture ratio, sensitivity analysis of viscosity and thermal conductivity was conducted for 1 vol% mixtures with five different nanoparticle mixture ratios. The results showed that the optimum mixture ratio with the highest thermal conductivity and lowest viscosity was found to be 40:40:20 (Al2O3:TiO2:Cu). Following this, the experimental data were compared with literature data for the corresponding single nanofluids and hybrid nanofluids. Due to different sizes of nanoparticles in ternary hybrid nanofluids, small and densely-packed clusters will result in relatively higher thermal conductivity and lower viscosity compared with single and binary hybrid nanofluids. Economic analysis revealed that Al2O3-TiO2-Cu/water ternary hybrid nanofluids with 0.7 vol% and 1 vol% are the most efficient working fluids in the laminar and turbulent flow regimes, respectively. These results highlight the strong potential of ternary hybrid nanofluids for use in industrial heat transfer applications