What dominates heat transfer performance of hybrid nanofluid in single pass shell and tube heat exchanger?

Abstract

Influence of nanoparticle volume concentration and proportion on heat transfer performance (HTP) of Al2O3 – Cu/water hybrid nanofluid in a single pass shell and tube heat exchanger is analyzed. Multiphase mixture model is adopted to model the flow. Three-dimensional governing equations and associated boundary conditions are solved using finite volume method. The numerical results are validated with the experimental results. Results indicate that optimized nanoparticle volume concentration and proportion dominate HTP of hybrid nanofluid. Heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number are monotonic increase functions of nanoparticle volume concentration and proportion. The percentage increase in heat transfer coefficient of hybrid nanofluid is 139% than water and 25% than Cu/water nanofluid. At higher Reynolds number, the increment in Number of Transfer Units (NTU) between water and hybrid nanofluid is close to 75%. Maximum enhancement in Nusselt number for hybrid nanofluid exceeds 90% when compared to nanofluid (Al2O3/Water nanofluid). Consequently, highest heat transfer performance is attained for hybrid nanofluid systems. Effectiveness of heat exchanger increases almost to 124% when hybrid nanofluid is employed. We show that it is higher than water as well (conventional coolant). Results are expected to be helpful in further industrial-scale deployment of nanofluids, which is an area that is currently relevant for ongoing academia-industry partnership efforts worldwide.