Heat transfer augmentation in automobile radiator using Al2O3–water based nanofluid

Abstract

In this work, the performance study of an automobile radiator using nanofluid in comparison with distilled water as coolant in the heat exchanger-based radiator is evaluated. The distilled water and nanofluid are flown through the radiator consisting of upright tubes with an elliptical-shaped cross section. Forced air is passed through the radiator perpendicular to the direction of fluid flow in tubes. The experiments are performed with three different volumetric concentrations of nanofluid (Al2O3–water), with different flow rates, air flow velocities, and fluid inlet temperatures. The results obtained from this study demonstrate that an increase in fluid flow rate and air flow rate improves the heat transfer performance. It was found that an enhancement in heat transfer rate was found to be the maximum up to 44.29% at 0.2% volume fraction of alumina-distilled water-based nanofluid in comparison with distilled water. The effectiveness of radiator was found maximum up to 40.3% at 0.2% volume fraction of alumina-distilled water based nanofluid at 40 LPH.