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Convective heat transfer and flow characteristics of Cu-H2O

nanofluid

Article  in  Science in China Series E Technological Sciences · August 2002

DOI: 10.1360/02ye9047

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 Vol. 45 No. 4 SCIENCE IN CHINA (Series E) August 2002

Convective heat transfer and flow characteristics of

Cu-water nanofluid
LI Qiangहஜ XUAN Yimin༦࿍੖
School of Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
Correspondence should be addressed to Li Qiang (email: [email protected])

Received January 13, 2002

Abtract An experimental system is built to investigate convective heat transfer and flow charac-
teristics of the nanofluid in a tube. Both the convective heat transfer coefficient and friction factor of
Cu-water nanofluid for the laminar and turbulent flow are measured. The effects of such factors as
the volume fraction of suspended nanoparticles and the Reynolds number on the heat transfer and
flow characteristics are discussed in detail. The experimental results show that the suspended
nanoparticles remarkably increase the convective heat transfer coefficient of the base fluid and
show that the friction factor of the sample nanofluid with the low volume fraction of nanoparticles is
almost not changed. Compared with the base fluid, for example, the convective heat transfer coef-
ficient is increased about 60% for the nanofluid with 2.0 vol% Cu nanoparticles at the same Rey-
nolds number. Considering the factors affecting the convective heat transfer coefficient of the nano-
fluid, a new convective heat transfer correlation for nanofluid under single-phase flows in tubes is
established. Comparison between the experimental data and the calculated results indicate that
the correlation describes correctly the energy transport of the nanofluid.
Keywords: nanofluid, convective heat transfer, correlation, friction factor.

With increasing heat transfer rate of the heat exchange equipment, the conventional process
fluid with low thermal conductivity can no longer meet the requirements of high-intensity heat
transfer. Low thermal property of heat transfer fluid is a primary limitation to the development of
high compactness and effectiveness of heat exchangers. An effective way of improving the ther-
mal conductivity of fluids is to suspend small solid particles in the fluids[1]. Traditionally, solid
particles of micrometer or millimeter magnitudes were mixed in the base liquid. Although the
solid additives may improve heat transfer coefficient, practical uses are limited because the mi-
crometer and/or millimeter-sized particles settle rapidly, clog flow channels, erode pipelines and
cause severe pressure drops.
The concept of nanofluids refers to a new kind of heat transport fluids by suspending nano-
scaled metallic or nonmetallic particles in base fluids. Some experimental investigations[2
ü5]
have
revealed that the nanofluids have remarkably higher thermal conductivities than those of conven-
tional pure fluids and shown that the nanofluids have great potential for heat transfer enhancement.
Nanofluids are more suit for practical application than the existing techniques for enhancing heat
transfer by adding millimeter and/or micrometer-sized particles in fluids. It incurs little or no pen-
alty in pressure drop because the nanoparticles are so small that the nanofluid behaves like a pure
 No. 4 CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER 409

fluid.
To apply the nanofluid to practical heat transfer processes, more studies on its flow and heat
transfer feature are needed. Pak and Cho[6] performed experiments on turbulent friction and heat
transfer behavior of two kinds of the nanofluids. In their study, J -Al2O3 with mean diameter of 13
nm and TiO2 with mean diameter of 27 nm were dispersed in water, and the experimental results
showed that the suspended nanoparticles increased convective heat transfer coefficient of the fluid.
The Nusselt number of the nanofluids was found to increase with the increasing volume fraction
and Reynolds number. Lee and Choi[7] applied the nanofluid as the coolant to a microchannel heat
exchanger for cooling crystal silicon mirrors used in high-intensity X-ray sources and pointed out
that the nanofluid dramatically enhanced cooling rates compared with the conventional wa-
ter-cooled and liquid-nitrogen-cooled microchannel heat exchangers. The cooling capability of
30MW·m-2 was achieved.
It is expected that the heat transfer enhancement of the nanofluids may result from intensifi-
cation of turbulence or eddy, suppression of the boundary layer as well as dispersion or backmix-
ing of the suspended nanoparticles, besides substantial augmentation of the thermal conductivity
of the fluid. Therefore, the convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids is a function of
properties, dimension and volume fraction of suspended nanoparticles, and the flow velocity. The
conventional convective heat transfer correlation of the pure fluid is not applicable to the nan-
ofluid. This paper is aimed at investigating convective heat transfer performances of the nanofluid
and establishing heat transfer correlation for single-phase flows in tubes.

1 Experimental system of convective heat transfer and flow characteristics for nanofluids

An experimental rig is built to study the convective heat transfer and flow characteristics of
the nanofluid flowing in a tube. As shown schematically in fig. 1, the experimental system mainly
includes a reservoir tank, a pump, a bass line, a heat transfer test section, a cooler, a pressure drop
test section, a fluid collection tank and so on.

Fig. 1. The experimental system of the convective heat transfer and flow characteristics for the nanofluid.
 410 SCIENCE IN CHINA (Series E) Vol. 45

The reservoir tank of 5 liter volume is manufactured using polymethylmethacrylate to deposit

the nanofluid and monitor the dispersion behavior and stability of the nanofluid. The cooler with
5.2 kW of cooling capacity is used to keep constant temperature at the inlet of the test section. The
flow rate is controlled with two adjusting valves, one at the main flow loop and the other at the
bass line. A three-way valve is installed at the end of the main flow loop, which enables the flow
to be diverted from the reservoir tank into the fluid collection tank in order to measure the mass
flow rate of the nanofluid. Two same flexible vinyl tubes are respectively connected with the res-
ervoir tank and the collection tank in such way that the flow rate measurement procedure would
not change the flow rate itself. Two pressure taps were mounted at the end of the pressure drop
test section with 12 mm inner diameter and 1m length to measure the pressure drop of nanofluids.
The heat transfer test section is a straight brass tube with an inner diameter of 10mm and a
length of 800 mm. Ten thermocouples are mounted at different places of the heat transfer test sec-
tion to measure the wall temperatures and the fluid bulk temperatures. To obtain a con-
stant-heat-flux boundary condition, the heat transfer test section is heated electrically by a DC
power supply capable of delivering a maximum of 3.5 kW. The test section is isolated thermally
from its upstream and downstream sections by plastic bushings to minimize the heat loss resulting
from axial heat conduction. In order to minimize the heat loss from the test section to the ambient,
the whole test section is thermally isolated on the outside with a layer of expanded pearl powder
and a vacuum casing tube. The hydrodynamic entry section is long enough to accomplish fully
developed flow at the entrance of the heat transfer test section.
During experimental runs, the tube wall temperatures, inlet and outlet temperatures of the
sample nanofluid, mass flow rates and electric power inputs are measured. From these data, the
convective heat transfer coefficients can be determined
q
hnf , (1)
Tw  Tf
where q is the heat flux of the heat transfer test section, TW is the mean tube wall temperature. Tf is
the mean bulk temperature of the fluid, amounting to half the sum of inlet and outlet temperatures,
because the difference between inlet and outlet temperatures is small.
Before measuring the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids, the experimental
system was calibrated by comparing the measured Nusselt numbers of water at the fully devel-
oped turbulent flow with the calculated values using the Dittus-Boelter equation[8]
Nu 0.023Re0.8 Pr 0.4 . (2)
As illustrated in fig. 2, the good coincidence between the experimental results and the calcu-
lated values shows that the precision of the experimental system is relatively high. The precision
of the experimental system is less than 4%.

2 Convective heat transfer experiment and correlation

The sample nanofluids are prepared by direct mixing of the nanostructured Cu particles with
 No. 4 CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER 411

diameters below 100 nm and deionized water. To

prevent the aggregation among nanoparticles, a
small amount of fatty acid salt is selected as the
dispersant to cover the nanoparticles. The nano-
fluids with different particle volume fractions are
used in the experiment to investigate the effect of
the nanoparticle concentration on the enhanced
heat transfer performances of nanofluids, in
which 0.3%, 0.5%, 0.8%, 1.0%, 1.2%, 1.5% and
2.0% volume fraction Cu-water nanofluids are
involved. Nanofluids with higher volume frac- Fig. 2. Comparison between the measured results and
the calculated values of water.
tions of nanoparticles may be limited in practical
application and consume much more solid particles. The Reynolds number Re varies in the range
of 800ü25000. In the present study, the volume fraction of nanoparticles is determined with the
mass fraction of nanoparticles.
Fig. 3 and 4 give the convective heat transfer coefficient of the Cu-water nanofluid with the
different Reynolds numbers under the laminar and the turbulent flow, respectively. The experi-
ments show that the suspended nanoparticles remarkably increase heat transfer performance of the
base fluid, and the Cu-water nanofluid has larger heat transfer coefficient than pure water under
the same Reynolds number. Compared with water, for example, the convective heat transfer coef-
ficient of nanofluid is increased about 60% for the nannofluid with 2.0 vol% Cu nanoparticles the
same Reynolds number.

Fig. 3. The convective heat transfer coefficient of nan- Fig. 4. The convective heat transfer coefficient of nanoflu-
ofluids for the laminar flow. Ƹ, Water (experimental ids for the turbulent flow. Ƹ, Water (experimental values);
values); Ƶ, 0.3 vol%; ƶ, 0.5 vol%; ƽ, 0.8 vol%; ƻ, Ƶ, 0.3 vol%; ƶ, 0.5 vol%; ƽ, 0.8 vol%; ƻ, 1.0 vol%;,
1.0 vol%; Ʒ, 1.2 vol%; ͩ, 1.5 vol%; ͪ, 2.0 vol%. 1.2 vol%; ͩ, 1.5 vol%; ͪ, 2.0 vol%.

The experimental results also indicate that the heat transfer feature of a nanofluid remarkably
increases with the volume fraction of nanoparticles. The particle volume fraction is one of the fac-
tors affecting the convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid. For example, the ratio of
 412 SCIENCE IN CHINA (Series E) Vol. 45

the Nusselt number of the nanofluid to that of water at the same Reynolds number varies from
1.06 to 1.6 if the volume fraction of the nanoparticles increases from 0.5% to 2.0%.
As shown in fig. 5, the convective heat
transfer coefficient of the nanofluid increases
with the flow velocity as well as the volume
fraction of nanoparticles and is larger than that
of the base liquid (water) at the same flow ve-
locity. But Pak and Cho[6] found that the con-
vective heat transfer coefficient of the suspen-
sions at a volume concentration of 3% was 12%
smaller than that of pure water under the condi-
tion of constant average velocity. The reason
Fig. 5. Variation of heat transfer coefficient with velocity
in the laminar flow. Ƶ, Water (experimental values); ƶ, may be that both the suspensions have much
0.3 vol.%; ƽ, 0.5 vol.%; ƻ, 0.8 vol.%; Ʒ, 1.0 vol.%; higher viscosities than that of water, which sup-
Ƹ, 1.2 vol.%; ͩ, 1.5 vol.%; ͪ, 2.0 vol.%.
presses flow turbulence. It may be instructive to
point out that a proper selection of the particle volume fraction and of the couple pair of solid par-
ticles and base liquid is important for applying nanoparticles to heat transfer enhancement. In
some cases, the viscosity of the dispersed fluid sharply increases with the increasing particle vol-
ume fraction and becomes much higher than that of the base liquid, so that higher volume fraction
of the solid particles may suppress heat transfer enhancement of the suspension, while preparing
the nanofluid, therefore, it may be of importance to select the volume fraction, dimensions and
material properties of the nanoparticles suspended in the base liquid. Selecting nanoparticles with
higher thermal conductivity and larger size is a crucial point.
As mentioned before, the enhanced heat transfer by the nanofluid may result from the fol-
lowing two aspects: One is that the suspended particles increase the thermal conductivity of the
two-phase mixture; the other is that chaotic movement of ultrafine particles accelerates energy
exchange process in the fluid. The nanofluid behaves more like a fluid than the conventional
solid-fluid mixtures in which relatively large particles with micrometer or millimeter orders are
suspended. But the nanofluid is a two-phase fluid in nature and has some common features of the
solid-fluid mixtures. The effects of several factors such as gravity, Brownian force, and friction
force between the fluid and ultrafine solid particles, the phenomena of Brownian diffusion, sedi-
mentation, and dispersion may coexist in the main flow of a nanofluid. This means that the slip
velocity between the fluid and the particles may not be zero, although the particles are ultrafine.
Irregular and random movement of the particles increase energy exchange rates in the fluid, i.e.
thermal dispersion takes place in the flow of the nanofluid. The thermal dispersion will flatten
temperature distribution and make the temperature gradient between the fluid and wall steeper,
augmenting heat transfer rate between the fluid and the wall. Evidently the thermal dispersion
plays an important role in heat transfer enhancement. Therefore, it may be improper to correlate
 No. 4 CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER 413

the experimental data of heat transfer for nanofluids with the conventional forms for single-phase
fluids.
In general, the Nusselt number Nu of a nanofluid may be expressed as follows:
§ k  U cp d ·
Nu nf f ¨ Renf , Prnf , d , , I , dimensions and shape of particles ¸ , (3)
¨
©
kf  U cp f ¸
¹
where Renf is the Reynolds number of the nanofluid, Prnf is the Prandtl number of the nanofluid, kd
is the thermal conductivity of the nanoparticle, kf is the thermal conductivity of the base fluid,
(Ucp)d is the heat capacity of the nanoparticle, (Ucp)f is the heat capacity of the base fluid, and I is
the volume fraction of the nanoparticle.
In the light of analysis and derivation presented by Xuan[9], the following formula is pro-
posed to correlate the experimental data for the nanofluid:
Nunf 
c1 1.0  c2I m1 Pedm2 Renf
m3

Prnf0.4 , (4)

where the particle Peclet number Ped is defined as

um d p
Ped . (5)
D nf
The Reynolds number and the Prandlt number of the nanofluid are defined respectively as
um D
Renf , (6)
Xnf
Xnf
Prnf . (7)
D nf
The thermal diffusivity of the nanofluid Dnf in expressions (5) and (7) is defined as
knf knf
D nf , (8)
( U cp )nf (1  I )( U cp )f  I ( U cp )d
where um is the mean velocity, D is inner diameter of the tube, Xnf is the viscosity of the nanofluid.
dp is the mean diameter of the nanoparticle. knf is the thermal conductivity of the nanofluid. The
thermal conductivity knf and the viscosity Xnf can be found from the previous paper[4].
Compared with the heat transfer correlation for conventional single-phase flow, the volume
fraction I of suspended nanoparticles and the Peclet number are involved in the above expression.
The Peclet number Pe describes the effect of thermal dispersion caused by microconvective and
microdiffusion of the suspended nanoparticles. The case c2=0 refers to zero thermal dispersion,
which just corresponds to the case of the pure base fluid.
With an ensemble of experimental data of Nunf vs I, Ped, Renf and Prnf, the coefficients c1 and
c2 as well as the exponents m1, m2 and m3 in the above formula are found for either the laminar or
turbulent flow by data reduction.
 414 SCIENCE IN CHINA (Series E) Vol. 45

Nunf 
0.4328 1.0  11.285I 0.754 Ped0.218 Renf
0.333
Prnf0.4 (for the laminar flow), (9)

Nunf 
0.0059 1.0  7.6286I 0.6886 Ped0.001  Re 0.9238
nf Prnf0.4 (for the turbulent flow). (10)

Figs. 6 and 7 give the calculated results of the sample nanofluids with expressions (9) and
(10), respectively. Comparison shows that the calculated results are in good coincidence with the
experimental results with only 8% discrepancy revealing that expression (4) correctly takes into
account the main factors affecting heat transfer of the nanofluid and can be used to predict heat
transfer coefficient of the nanofluid.

Fig. 6. Comparison between the measured data and the Fig. 7. Comparison between the measured data and the
calculated values for laminar flow. Calculated values: 1, 0.3 calculated values for turbulent flow. Calculated values: 1,
vol%; 2, 0.5 vol%; 3, 08 vol%; 4, 1.0 vol%; 5, 1.2 vol%; 6, 0.3 vol%; 2, 0.5 vol%; 3, 08 vol%; 4, 1.0 vol%; 5, 1.2 vol%;
1.5 vol%; 7, 2.0 vol%. Experimental values: 1, 0.3 vol%; 2, 6, 1.5 vol%; 7, 2.0 vol%. Experimental values: 1, 0.3 vol%;
0.5 vol%; 3, 0.8 vol%; 4, 1.0 vol%; 5, 1.2 vol%; 6, 1.5 2, 0.5 vol%; 3, 0.8 vol%; 4, 1.0 vol%; 5, 1.2 vol%; 6, 1.5
vol%; 7, 2.0 vol%. vol%; 7, 2.0 vol%.

3 Pressure drop experiment of nanofluids

It is necessary to learn the flow resistance of nanofluids besides the heat transfer enhance-
ment feature in order to apply the nanofluid to practical cases. The pressure drops of the dilute
suspensions consisting of water and Cu-nanoparticles in a tube are experimentally measured for
both the laminar and turbulent flow.
Four sample nanofluids with the volume fractions of nanoparticles 1.0%, 1.2%, 1.5% and
2.0% are used in pressure drop tests. Figs. 8 and 9 illustrate the friction factors as a function of the
Reynolds number for the laminar and turbulent flow, respectively. The friction factor of the pure
water is also shown as a solid line in the figures. The friction factor Onf is defined as
Pnf D 2 g
Onf , (11)
L um2
where pnf is the pressure drop of the pressure drop test section, L is the length of the pressure drop
test section, and g is the acceleration of gravity.
 No. 4 CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER 415

These figures show that the friction factors of the dilute nanofluids are almost equal to those
of water under the same Reynolds number and do not increase with the volume fraction of
nanoparticles. Compared with water, no significant augmentation in pressure drop for the nan-
ofluid is found in all runs of the experiment, which reveals that dilute nanofluids will not cause
extra penalty in pump power.

Fig. 8. The friction factors of nanofluids for the laminar flow. Fig. 9. The friction factors of nanofluids for the turbu-
ü, Water; Ƶ, nanofluid (1.0 vol%);ƽ, nanofluid (1.2 vol%); lent flow. ü, Water; Ƶ, nanofluid (1.0 vol%);ƽ, nan-
ƶ, nanofluid (1.5 vol%); ƻ, nanofluid (2.0 vol%). ofluid (1.2 vol%); ƶ, nanofluid (1.5 vol%); ƻ, nan-
ofluid (2.0 vol%).

4 Conclusion

The convective heat transfer feature of Cu-water nanofluids were investigated experimentally
in a tube. The experimental results show that the suspended nanoparticles remarkably increase
heat transfer performance of the base fluid and the nanofluid has larger heat transfer coefficient
than pure water under the same Reynolds number. The heat transfer feature of a nanofluid in-
creases with the volume fraction of nanoparticles. The friction factors of the nanofluids coincide
well with those of the water in the pressure drop test, because the nanoparticles are so small that a
suspension with nanoparticles behaves like a pure fluid. The nanofluid with the low volume frac-
tion incurs almost no augmentation of pressure drop.
Considering some factors affecting convective heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids,
such as the flow velocity, the transport properties, the volume fraction of nanoparticle, the
microconvective and microdiffusion of the nanoparticles, a new convective heat transfer correla-
tion for nanofluid suspending the metal nanoparticles under single-phase flows in tubes has been
established as Nunf  
c1 1.0  c2I m1 Pedm2 Renfm3 Prnf0.4 . Comparison between the experimental data

and the calculated results indicates that the correlation correctly takes into account the main fac-
tors that affect heat transfer of the nanofluid and can be used to predict heat transfer coefficient of
the nanofluid.
Acknowledgements This was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50176018)
 416 SCIENCE IN CHINA (Series E) Vol. 45

and the Ministry of Education of China.

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