Single-phase fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of nanofluid in a circular microchannel: Development of flow and heat transfer correlations. (September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lodhi, Mangal Singh; Sheorey, Tanuja; Dutta, Goutam
• Is Part Of: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Volume 234:Number 18(2020)
• Page Start: 3689
• Page End: 3708
• Publication Date: 2020-09
• Subjects: DW -- friction factor -- local heat transfer coefficient -- microchannel -- nanofluid -- Nusselt number -- Reynolds number -- performance evaluation criterion; Mechanical engineering -- Periodicals; 621.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0954406220916537
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0954-4062

Abstract

The convective heat transfer in microchannels with the use of nanofluids has proved to be a potential candidate for cooling of micro-electromechanical system devices. The current research article presents the experimental study on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics ofAl 2 O 3 /water nanofluid in a microchannel under thermally developing laminar flow at Reynolds number ranging from 300 to 1000. The experimental set-up of a circular microchannel test section with an inner diameter of500 μ m and length of100 mm is fabricated to conduct the experimental study. The effect of nanoparticle concentration (1 . 0 - 3 . 0 % ), Reynolds number (300 ≤ Re ≤ 1000 ) on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics ofAl 2 O 3 /water nanofluid have been measured and compared with that of distilled water (DW). The results indicate that the maximum enhancement in local heat transfer coefficient is achieved up to24 . 5 %, while friction factor is achieved up to22 . 7 % forAl 2 O 3 /water nanofluid with nanoparticle concentration of3 . 0 % as compared to DW. The results showed that the performance evaluation criterion ofAl 2 O 3 /water nanofluid is greater than unity (η > 1 . 0 ), implying the benefits of nanofluids as compared to DW. Moreover, the predicted data obtained by the present proposed correlations for friction factor and local Nusselt number usingAl 2 O 3 /water nanofluid show reasonably good agreement with the deviations of± 5 % and± 10 %, respectively, with the numerical data as compared to the predicted data obtained by the existing correlations available in the literature.