Applied Thermal Engineering 52 (2013) 8e16

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Experimental study of overall heat transfer coefficient in the

application of dilute nanofluids in the car radiator
S.M. Peyghambarzadeh a, *, S.H. Hashemabadi b, M. Naraki a, Y. Vermahmoudi a
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Mahshahr branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr, Iran
b
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Research Laboratory, School of Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran, Iran

h i g h l i g h t s

< Overall heat transfer coefficient in the car radiator measured experimentally.
< Nanofluids showed greater heat transfer performance comparing with water.
< Increasing liquid and air Re increases the overall heat transfer coefficient.
< Increasing the inlet liquid temperature decreases the overall heat transfer coefficient.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Heat transfer of coolant flow through the automobile radiators is of great importance for the optimi-
Received 22 March 2012 zation of fuel consumption. In this study, the heat transfer performance of the automobile radiator is
Accepted 9 November 2012 evaluated experimentally by calculating the overall heat transfer coefficient (U) according to the
Available online 17 November 2012
conventional 3-NTU technique. Copper oxide (CuO) and Iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles are added to the
water at three concentrations 0.15, 0.4, and 0.65 vol.% with considering the best pH for longer stability. In
Keywords:
these experiments, the liquid side Reynolds number is varied in the range of 50e1000 and the inlet liquid
Overall heat transfer coefficient
to the radiator has a constant temperature which is changed at 50, 65 and 80
C. The ambient air for
Automobile radiator
Nanoparticle
cooling of the hot liquid is used at constant temperature and the air Reynolds number is varied between
Copper oxide 500 and 700. However, the effects of these variables on the overall heat transfer coefficient are deeply
Iron oxide investigated. Results demonstrate that both nanofluids show greater overall heat transfer coefficient in
Experimental comparison with water up to 9%. Furthermore, increasing the nanoparticle concentration, air velocity,
stability and nanofluid velocity enhances the overall heat transfer coefficient. In contrast, increasing the nanofluid
inlet temperature, lower overall heat transfer coefficient was recorded.
Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The radiator is an important accessory of vehicle engine. Normally,

it is used as a cooling system of the engine and generally water is
Replacement of nanofluids as a heat transfer media and its heat transfer medium. This air cooler configuration is louvered fin
relevant advantages over the conventional heat transfer fluids were and flat tube and due to its complicated geometry less experi-
over emphasized in the recent investigations. Different experi- mental studies can be found in the open literature.
mental studies were performed to analyze and verify their advan- Choi [10] reported a project to target fuel savings for the auto-
tages in various heat exchange systems like shell and tube heat motive industries through the development of energy efficient
exchangers [1], double tube heat exchangers [2,3], plate heat nanofluids and smaller and lighter radiators. A major goal of the
exchangers [3], heat pipes [4,5], microchannel heat sink [6], elec- nanofluids project is to reduce the size and weight of the vehicle
tronics cooling [7], building air conditioning [8,9], and the like. cooling systems by greater than 10% despite the cooling demands of
Another application is implementation of nanofluids instead of the higher power engines. Nanofluids enable the potential to allow
conventional fluids in car radiators which is recently under studied. higher temperature coolants and higher heat rejection in the
automotive engines. It is estimated that a higher temperature
radiator could reduce the radiator size approximately 30%. This
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ98 9123241450; fax: þ98 1512225952. translates into reduced aerodynamic drag and fluid pumping and
E-mail address: [email protected] (S.M. Peyghambarzadeh). fan requirements, leading to perhaps a 10% fuel savings. It is

1359-4311/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2012.11.013
 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 52 (2013) 8e16 9

interesting idea in these years which humans involved in the including pure water, pure ethylene glycol, and their binary
energy and fuel shortage crisis. According to this idea, scarce mixtures with Al2O3 nanoparticles and once again it was proved
experimental and theoretical studies were performed to analyze that nanofluids improves the cooling performance of the car radi-
the application of nanofluids in the car radiator. ator extensively. In the two latter studies, tube side heat transfer
Leong et al. [11] attempted to investigate the heat transfer coefficient was calculated according to the temperature measure-
characteristics of an automotive car radiator using ethylene glycol ment at the thin walls of the radiator flat tubes. It is very hard to
based copper nanofluids numerically. Thermal performance of an accurately measure the temperature at the wall and therefore, the
automotive car radiator operated with nanofluids has been data may have not adequate accuracy.
compared with a radiator using conventional coolants. Vajjha et al. In this study, the application of CuO/water and Fe2O3/water
[12] have been numerically studied a three-dimensional laminar nanofluids in the car radiator is investigated through the
flow and heat transfer with two different nanofluids, Al2O3 and measurement of overall heat transfer coefficient; U. Using this
CuO, in the ethylene glycol/water mixture circulating through the method, there is no need to measure the wall temperature.
flat tubes of an automobile radiator to evaluate their superiority Furthermore, variable liquid and air flow rates, different nano-
over the base fluid. Convective heat transfer coefficient in the particle concentrations, and various liquid inlet temperatures are
developing and developed regions along the flat tubes with the applied to have more understandings about the radiator cooling
nanofluid flow showed considerable improvement over the base efficiency.
fluid.
Khan et al. [13] have experimentally studied forced convection 2. Experimental
cross-flow heat transfer of hot air over an array of cold water
carrying elliptic tubes. Their experimental investigation was 2.1. Set up and procedures
restricted to water as the coolant. Cuevas et al. [14] have studied the
heat transfer performance of a louvered fin and flat tube heat As shown in Fig. 1, the experimental set up used in this research
exchanger. Mixture of ethylene glycol and water was circulated includes flow lines, a reservoir tank, two heaters, a centrifugal
through the tubes at a supply temperature of 90
C. This fluid was pump, a liquid flow meter, a variable speed forced draft fan, an air
cooled with ambient air at temperature of 20
C. The thermohy- flow channel, a PID controller for temperature adjustment, five
draulic performance (calculation of heat transfer coefficient and thermoresistances for temperature measurement and a cross flow
friction factor) of the heat exchanger has been compared with the heat exchanger which is an automobile radiator. The test section is
classical correlations given in the literature. Avramenko et al. [15] a cross flow heat exchanger inside the air flow duct which is con-
made theoretical estimation of the heat transfer enhancement in sisted of serpentine finned-tube exchanger, shown in Fig. 2. Water
laminar flow of a nanofluid over a flat plate. For 1% concentration of flows upward through the 34 vertical non circular tubes with
nanoparticles, the respective increase in the Nusselt number rea- stadium-shaped cross section. The fins and the tubes are made with
ches up to 5%. aluminum.
Peyghambarzadeh et al. [16] have recently investigated the The pump gives a constant flow rate of 10 l/min, the flow rate to
application of Al2O3/water nanofluids in the car radiator by calcu- the test section is regulated by appropriate adjusting of a globe
lating the tube side heat transfer coefficient. They have recorded valve on the recycle line. The working fluid fills 25% of the feed tank
the interesting enhancement of 45% comparing with the pure water which has 30 L total volume (height of 35 cm and diameter of
application under highly turbulent flow condition. In the other 30 cm). The total volume of the circulating liquid is constant in all
study, Peyghambarzadeh et al. [17] have used different base fluids the experiments. Five layer insulated tubes (Isopipe 0.75 in

Fig. 1. The cooling loop set up for the simulation of automobile cooling system.
10 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 52 (2013) 8e16

Fig. 2. (A) The applied serpentine finned tubes automobile radiator (B) magnified scheme of the radiator dimensions (C) schematic of a flat tube.

diameter) have been used as connecting lines and covered with and most of this uncertainty related to the measurement of
glass wool to reduce heat loss to the surrounding. A flow meter temperatures.
(Technical Group LZMe15Z Type) was used to control and manip-
ulate the liquid flow rate with the precision of 0.1 l/min. For heating
2.2. Nanofluid preparation
the working fluid, two electrical heaters (6000 W) and a controller
were used to vary the temperature between 50 and 80
C. Four
Preparation of homogeneous suspension remains a technical
RTDs (Pte100 U) were installed on the flow line to record radiator
challenge since the nanoparticles always form aggregates due to
hot liquid inlet and cold liquid outlet temperatures, inlet air
very strong van der Waals interactions. To get stable nanofluids,
temperature, and another one was used in the feeding tank to turn
physical or chemical treatment have been conducted such as an
the heaters on and off. The temperatures from the thermocouples
addition of surfactant, surface modification of the suspended
were measured by four digital multimeters, SUe105PRR, SAMWON
particles or applying strong force on the clusters of the suspended
ENG, with an accuracy of 0.1
C.
particles [21]. To avoid complications due to the presence of
For cooling the liquid, a forced fan (Techno Pars 1400 rpm)
dispersant/surfactant, in this study the nanofluids were stabilized
which is capable of adjusting the speed was installed close and face
considering the variation of pH.
to face to the radiator at the beginning of a 2.5 m air flow duct.
The aging effects in suspensions of nanoparticles can affect their
Consequently, heat exchange exists between hot water flowing
heat transfer performance. Eastman et al. [22] measured the
through the non circular tubes and ambient air across the tube
thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol based nanofluids contain-
bundle. The compact serpentine fins attached to the exterior wall of
ing 0.3% copper nanoparticles with time. They found slightly
the tube create hundreds minichannels for air flow and therefore,
reduction in thermal conductivity of stabilized nanofluid two
the actual air velocity in these minichannels is obtained through
months after preparation. This might due to reduced dispersion
the calculation of superficial velocity and measurement of radiator
stability of nanoparticles with respect to time.
porosity. The latter was examined according to standard method
In this study, to prepare the nanofluid suspension the equivalent
for porosity measurement [18] and for our radiator, it is equal
weight of nanoparticles according to their volume is measured and
to 0.75.
gradually added to distilled water while it is agitated in a flask.
The outlet air temperature is determined at the channel exit
Since it is known that pH of a colloidal solution is one of the main
cross sectional area according to the definition of bulk temperature.
parameters influencing the particle aggregation and the stability of
As demonstrated by Incorpera et al. [19] bulk temperature can be
the suspension [23], the pH of each nanofluid sample has been
calculated as follows:
justified at different values by adding the adequate quantity of HCl
Z
ruCp TdA
Table 1
A
Tb ¼ Z (1) The radiator and water side important dimensions.
ruCp dA Dimension Notation Value
A Radiator length Lrad.a 0.384 m
Radiator height Hrad.a 0.33 m
Therefore, an air flow meter and 10 RTD’s are mounted in the 10 Radiator width Wrad.a 0.022 m
points of exit cross section of the air flow channel and the measured Tube length Ltb 0.022 m
values are used in Eq. (1) to calculate Tb,o. Some of the important Tube height Htb 0.33 m
Tube width Wtb 0.002 m
geometrical characteristics of water side and air side of the radiator
Tube thickness dt 0.00008 m
are summarized in Tables 1 and 2, respectively. Number of tubes e 34
The range of the operating variables and their relevant uncer- Tube hydraulic diameter dh 0.0039 m
tainty in the measurement which are calculated according to Total tube side area Ai 0.505 m2
Moffat [20] are shown in Table 3. Furthermore, the measurement a
According to Fig. 2(A).
uncertainty of the overall heat transfer coefficient is 15.1% b
According to Fig. 2(C).
 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 52 (2013) 8e16 11

Table 2 conductivity, in which the ratio of conductivity of the solid particles

The air side geometrical dimensions. to base fluid is larger than 100 can be expressed as follows:
Dimension Notation Value  
Fin length Lfina 0.022 m kp þ ðn  1Þkbf  4ðn  1Þ kbf  kp
Fin height Hfina 0.001 m knf ¼   kbf (4)
Fin width Wrada 0.01 m kp þ ðn  1Þkbf þ 4 kbf  kp
Fin thickness dfin 0.00008 m
Number of minichannels per column e 242
Number of all the minichannels e 8470 For calculating the thermal conductivity of CuO/water nano-
Fin thermal conductivity kfin 238 W/m.
C fluids, Koo and Kleinstreuer [31] developed a thermal conductivity
Total air side area Ao 4.1 m2 model, which is a two-term function. The first term is called the
a
According to Fig. 2(B). static part and the second term is due to the Brownian motion. The
second term takes into account the effect of particle size, particle
volumetric concentration, temperature and properties of base
and NaOH solutions to the suspensions. The pH is measured using fluid, as well as nanoparticles subjected to Brownian motion. The
a pocket-sized pH meter (AZ Co. 8686). The photographs, which are effective thermal conductivity of a nanofluid can be calculated by
shown in Fig. 3, demonstrate the stability of CuO/water and Fe2O3/ Eq. (5).
water nanofluids at the concentration of 0.65 vol.% and at different  
pH. These photos were taken a week after the preparation. As can kp þ ðn  1Þkbf  4ðn  1Þ kbf  kp
be seen in Fig. 3a and b, the stability condition at pH ¼ 10.1 and knf ¼   kbf þ 5
pH ¼ 11.1 is the best for CuO and Fe2O3 nanoparticles, respectively. kp þ ðn  1Þkbf þ 4 kbf  kp
Therefore, all the experimental data reported in this study have sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
kΤ
been gathered at above mentioned pH.  104 b4rbf Cpbf fðΤ; 4Þ (5)
rp dp

3. Nanofluids physical properties

The term f (T,f) in Eq. (5) is a function of temperature and
particle volume concentration given by Eq. (6):
By assuming that the nanoparticles are well dispersed within
the base fluid, i.e. the particle concentration can be considered   Τ 
uniform throughout the system; the effective thermophysical fðΤ; 4Þ ¼ 2:8217  102 4 þ 3:917  103  3:0669
Τ0
properties of the nanofluids at different temperatures and
concentrations can be evaluated using some classical formulas as  102 4  3:91123  103
usually used for two phase flow [24e26]. In this paper, the (6)
following correlations are used to calculate the density and the
specific heat of CuO/water and Fe2O3/water nanofluids: The fraction of the liquid volume which travels with a particle b,
is given by Eq. (7) for CuO/water nanofluids:
rnf ¼ 4rp þ ð1  4Þrbf (2)
b ¼ 9:881  ð1004Þ0:9446 (7)
! !
rbf rp In Eqs. (4) and (5), n is empirical shape factor given by n ¼ 3/j
Cpnf ¼ ð1  4Þ C þ4 C (3)
rnf pbf rnf pp and j is the particle sphericity, that is defined as the ratio of the
surface area of a sphere with volume equal to that of the particle, to
In the above equations, the subscripts “p”, “bf” and “nf” refer to the surface area of the particle, and in this paper j is considered to
the particles, base fluid, and nanofluids, respectively. f is volume be 3. k is Boltzmann constant, T is temperature in K, To is reference
fraction of the nanoparticle added to the base fluid. The charac- temperature 273.15 K and dp is nanoparticle diameter in m.
teristics of Fe2O3 and CuO nanoparticles at room temperature are Almost all formulas for the calculation of nanofluids viscosity
summarized in Table 4. derived from the pioneering work of Einstein [32], which is based
The thermal conductivity of the Fe2O3/water nanofluids is on the assumption of a linearly viscous fluid containing dilute,
calculated using Hamilton and Crosser [30] model. The thermal suspended, spherical particles. The Einstein formula is:

mnf ¼ mbf ð1 þ 2:54Þ (8)

Table 3
The range of operating conditions and their measurement uncertainty.
Here mnf is the viscosity of suspension; mbf is the viscosity of base
Conditions Notation Range Unit Uncertainty fluid. Einstein’s formula is found to be valid for relatively
[19] low particle volume fractions f < 0.02. Beyond this value, it
Liquid mass flow rate mw 0.05e0.14 l/s 0.1 underestimates the effective viscosity of the mixture. Kulkarni et al.
Liquid velocity in each uw 0.03e0.1 m/s e
[33] presented the correlation for the viscosity of CuO/water as
flat tube
Air mass flow rate ma 200e280 l/s 0.1 follows:
Air velocity in each ua 2e3 m/s e  
minichannel 1
e
mnf ¼ Α Β (9)
Liquid Reynolds number Rew Pure water: 300e1000 5.2% Τ
Renf CuO/water: 50e300 e 5.2%
Fe2O3/water: 200e1000 e 5.2%
Air Reynolds number Re (air) 500e700 e 8.1% where A and B are second order polynomial functions of particle
Liquid inlet temperature Tw,i 50e80

C 0.1 volumetric concentration 4:


Air inlet temperature Ta,i 35e40 C 0.1
Nanoparticle C 0e0.65 vol.% e Α ¼ 2058742 þ 158574 þ 1078:3
concentration (10)
Β ¼ 107:1242 þ 53:5484 þ 2:8715
12 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 52 (2013) 8e16

Fig. 3. Photographs taken for the stability analysis at different pH for (A) CuO/water nanofluid and (B) Fe2O3/water nanofluid.

 
4. Data reduction _ p
mC
C* ¼   min (15)
_ p
mC max
In this experiment, the hot water flowing inside the tube
transfers heat to the outside air flowing in the air flow channel. The In this study, C* varies between 0.7 and 2.6. The relationship of
air side and the tube side heat transfer rates can be calculated as: the effectiveness, the number of transfer unit (NTU), and the
  capacity ratio could be [34]:
_ a CP;a Ta;o  Ta;i
Qa ¼ m (11)
1 h i
1  eð1e Þ
NTU

  3 ¼ *
(16)
Qw _ w CP;w Tw;i  Tw;o
¼ m (12) C
From Eq. (16), the value of NTU is obtained and consequently,
where Qa and Qw are the heat transfer rates at the air and the water the overall heat transfer coefficient, U, will be calculated as follows:
flows, respectively. The arithmetic average of the heat transfer
rate is: U$Ao
NTU ¼   (17)
_ p
mC min
Q ave ¼ 0:5ðQ a þ Q w Þ (13)
The values of NTU in the present investigation are between 0.5
The performance of the heat exchangers is analyzed by and 1.5.
the conventional 3-NTU technique and the effectiveness, 3, is
defined as:
5. Results and discussion
Q ave
3 ¼   (14)
_ P Þmin Tw;i  Ta;i
ðmC 5.1. Pure water for verification test
In this investigation, the calculated 3 is in the range of 0.2e0.6.
The capacity ratio, C* is defined as follows: Before conducting systematic experiments on the application of
nanofluids in the car radiator, the reliability and accuracy of the
experimental system are tested using de-ionized water as the
Table 4 working fluid and the obtained experimental data are compared
Some thermophysical characteristics of CuO and Fe2O3 nanoparticles. with the theoretical prediction of the heat transfer relations. The
Nanoparticle Particle Density Specific Thermal Specific Purity overall heat transfer coefficient can be calculated from the
size (kg/m3) heat conductivity surface following thermal resistances as [35]:
(nm) [27] (J/kg K) [27] (W/md K) area (m2/g)
Fe2O3 40 5250 650 20 [28] 60 þ99% 1 1 dt 1
CuO 60 6400 531 76.5 [29] 80 þ98% ¼ þ þ (18)
UA h o ho A o k t A t hi A i
 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 52 (2013) 8e16 13

where h is convection heat transfer coefficient, A is heat transfer

surface area, kt is thermal conductivity of the tube wall, d is the tube
wall thickness, ho is surface efficiency, and the subscripts o, i, t
denote air side, tube side and tube wall, respectively. The surface
efficiency, ho in Eq. (18) is related to the fin efficiency h as follows:

Af
ho ¼ 1  ð1  hÞ (19)
Ao

where Ao is the total surface area of the finned tube and Af is the
surface area of the fin. These are related as follows:

Ao ¼ Af þ Ab (20)

where Ab is the surface area of the bare tube. The fin efficiency, h,

can be approximated from the Schmidt [36] relation as:

tan hðmLÞ
h ¼ (21)
mL

in which:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi Fig. 4. Effect of water side and air side Reynolds numbers on the experimental overall
heat transfer coefficient and the predictions of Eq. (18) with three different correlations
2ho
m ¼ (22) for internal heat transfer coefficient.
kf $dfin

where kf is the thermal conductivity of the fins, L is the fin length number are shown with a single curve. Furthermore, enhancement
and dfin is the fin thickness. The values of h are between 0.45 and of water velocity in the radiator tubes has more considerable effects
0.49 while the surface efficiency, ho is calculated to be in the range on the overall heat transfer coefficient. The results for other water
of 0.5e0.53 for the present experiments. inlet temperature including 50 and 65
C, which are not reported
The tube side heat transfer coefficient can be calculated by three here, are similar to those of 80
C. Table 5 presents the absolute
different correlations: SiedereTate [37] and Maiga et al. [38] average errors of the Eq. (18) in comparison with all of the exper-
correlations which were developed for fully developed laminar imental data for pure water cooling in the car radiator. Three
flow through the pipes at constant wall temperature. These different relations (Eqs. (23)e(25)) for internal and Eq. (26) for
correlations are demonstrated as Eqs. (23) and (24), respectively: external heat transfer coefficient have been implemented in Eq.
 13  0:14 (18). The results show that using SiedereTate [37] correlation has
1 d m minimum error in the prediction of radiator overall heat transfer
Nu ¼ 1:86ðRe$PrÞ3 $ h $ (23)
L ms coefficient.

Nu ¼ 0:951 Re0:173 Pr3

1
(24) 5.2. CuO/water and Fe2O3/water nanofluids

The nanofluids are implemented by the addition of CuO and

Dehghandokht et al. [39] suggested the following relationship
Fe2O3 nanoparticles into the water at three different nanoparticle
for the flow through the compact heat exchanger at
concentrations, i.e. 0.15, 0.4 and 0.65 vol.% and at different liquid
550  Re  1850:
flow rates of 0.05, 0.08, 0.11, and 0.14 l/s per each flat tube. In order
to consider the effect of temperature on the thermal performance
Nu ¼ 0:28 Re0:35 Pr0:36 (25)
of the radiator, different inlet temperatures have been applied for
where Re is the tube side Reynolds number based on the tube each concentration. The inlet temperatures include 50, 65, and
hydraulic diameter. 80
C for both water based nanofluids.
The air side heat transfer coefficient can be estimated by the First of all let us consider the consistency of the nanofluids
correlation of Vithayasai et al. [35] which was developed for experimental results by the observation of heat transfer rates in
a radiator similar to the present investigation in size and liquid side and air side of the heat exchanger. According to the
configuration: energy conservation law and also acceptable insulation of the
apparatus, the heat transfer rates on both sides of the radiator must
Nua ¼ ½10:145LnðRea  46:081ÞPr0:33 (26) be equal in each experiment. Fig. 5 shows this equality for 9
a
experiments performed with Fe2O3/water nanofluids. As can be
Predictions of Eq. (18) in conjunction with the three afore-
mentioned correlations for the calculation of water side heat
transfer coefficient hi are compared with the experimental overall Table 5
heat transfer coefficients of pure water in Fig. 4. As can be seen, The prediction errors of different correlations used in Eq. (18) for the calculation of
overall heat transfer coefficient of pure water in the car radiator.
reasonably good agreement exists between the experimental data
and the prediction of Eq. (18) especially when the internal heat # Tube side Air side %Absolute
transfer coefficient is calculated by SiedereTate relation. Increasing average error

the air velocity or the air Reynolds number slightly enhances the 1 SiedereTate [37] Vithayasai et al. [35] %8
2 Dehghandokht et al. [39] Vithayasai et al. [35] %19
overall heat transfer coefficient. This effect is weakly predicted by
3 Maiga et al. [38] Vithayasai et al. [35] %24
Eq. (18) and its predictions in all of the three air side Reynolds
14 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 52 (2013) 8e16

Fig. 5. The equality of water side and air side heat transfer rate in the Fe2O3/water Fig. 7. The overall heat transfer coefficient of Fe2O3/water nanofluids at the concen-
nanofluids experiments at the liquid flow rate of 0.14 l/s. tration of 0.15 vol.%.

seen, reasonably good agreements existed between liquid side and coefficient were also investigated in other types of heat exchanger
air side heat transfer rates in each experiment which indicates the and similar results were obtained [40].
accuracy of the results. Minor differences in some of the experi- Fig. 7 shows the similar results for Fe2O3/water nanofluids at the
ment can be related to small heat loss from the apparatus, or from concentration of 0.15 vol.%. The effects of operating parameters are
the variation in the ambient temperature along the days the similar to those obtained for CuO/water nanofluids. It can be seen
experiments performed. from Figs. 6 and 7 that Reynolds number for Fe2O3/water nanofluids
Fig. 6 depicts the overall heat transfer coefficients of CuO/water is greater than that of CuO/water nanofluids. It is mainly due to the
nanofluids at the concentration of 0.15 vol.% as a function of water lower viscosity of Fe2O3/water nanofluids in comparison with CuO/
side and air side Reynolds number. Also, the influences of liquid water nanofluids.
inlet temperature are shown in this figure. As it is shown the overall The effect of nanofluids concentration is shown in Fig. 8 by
heat transfer coefficient of CuO/water nanofluid enhances with plotting the heat transfer enhancement obtained in each concen-
increasing of Reynolds number. Meanwhile, the effect of tempera- tration of nanofluids. The results clearly state that increasing the
ture is somewhat complicated. It was previously shown that nanoparticle concentration enhances the heat transfer rate. This
increasing the liquid inlet temperature enhances the liquid effect magnifies itself for the case of Fe2O3/water nanofluids. Ulti-
convection coefficient [16,17]. Fig. 6 implies that the overall heat mately, at the concentration of 0.65 vol.%, the heat transfer
transfer coefficient reduces as the inlet temperature rises. The enhancement of about 9% is obtained for Fe2O3/water nanofluids in
effects of operating temperature on the overall heat transfer comparison with pure water. Furthermore, the experimental data
prove that the addition of low concentrations of CuO and Fe2O3

Fig. 6. The overall heat transfer coefficient of CuO/water nanofluids at the concen- Fig. 8. The percentage of heat transfer enhancement using different nanofluids at
tration of 0.15 vol.%. different concentrations in comparison with distilled water.
 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 52 (2013) 8e16 15

Table 6 Af surface area of the fin (m2)

The prediction errors of different correlations used in Eq. (18) for the calculation of Ao total surface area of the finned tube (m2)
nanofluids heat transfer coefficient in the car radiator.
B constant defined in Eq. (10)
# Tube side Air side %Absolute average error C nanoparticle concentration (vol.%)
CuO/water Fe2O3/water C* capacity ratio
1 SiedereTate [37] Vithayasai et al. [35] 12.5% 13.5% Cp specific heat at constant pressure (J/kg K)
2 Dehghandokht et al. [39] Vithayasai et al. [35] 12.9% 23.7% dh hydraulic diameter (m)
3 Maiga et al. [38] Vithayasai et al. [35] 27.6% 29.1% dp nanoparticle diameter (m)
4 XuaneLi [41] Vithayasai et al. [35] 6.5% 5.5%
H height (m)
h convection heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
k thermal conductivity (W/m K)
nanoparticles into the water give almost similar heat transfer L length (m)
enhancement for the application in the car radiator. It should also m mass flow rate (l/s)
be mentioned that application of nanofluids causes the liquid exits n empirical shape factor
the radiator at lower temperature and also the air gets warmer NTU number of transfer unit
comparing with the application of pure water. Therefore, lower Nu Nusselt Number ¼ (hdh/k)
DTLMTD and higher overall heat transfer coefficient will be obtained. Q heat transfer rate (W)
In the last part of the paper, the present experimental data are Re Reynolds number ¼ (rudh/m)
compared with the existing correlations. Four combinations of T temperature (K)
correlations are selected in conjunction with Eq. (18) to predict the u velocity (m/s)
overall heat transfer coefficient of the two nanofluids. Results in U overall heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
Table 6 show that the correlation developed by Xuan and Li [41] W width (m)
exhibits better agreement with the experimental results. It Pr Prandtle Number ¼ (Cpm/k)
should also be mentioned that all the correlations underpredict the
experimental results except than Xuan and Li [41] correlation. This
Greek symbols:
is due the fact that Xuan and Li [41] correlation is basically devel-
k Boltzmann constant ¼ 1.381  1023 (J/K)
oped for nanofluids.
j particle sphericity
r density (kg/m3)
6. Conclusion d thickness (m)
3 effectiveness
In this investigation, experimental overall heat transfer coeffi- ho surface efficiency
cients in the automobile radiator have been measured with two h fin efficiency
different water based (CuO and Fe2O3) nanofluids at different air m viscosity (kg/m s)
and liquid velocities and liquid inlet temperatures. The major f volume fraction
conclusions are as follows:
Superscript and subscript:
1 Overall heat transfer coefficient increases while the liquid inlet
a air
temperature decreases.
ave average
2 Overall heat transfer coefficient enhances with increasing the
bf base fluid
liquid flow rate and the air flow rate.
i inlet
3 Increasing the concentration of nanoparticles enhances the
nf nanofluid
overall heat transfer coefficient especially for Fe2O3/water
o outlet
nanofluids.
p particle
4 The correlation developed by Xuan and Li predicts well the
rad. Radiator
experimental data.
s surface
5 This new working fluid with higher heat transfer performance
t tube
would promote the car engine performance and would reduce
w water
fuel consumption. Therefore, it can be followed by other
investigators to eliminate the probable deficiencies for indus-
trialization in the car industries. References

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