Characteristics of heat transfer and pressure drop in a chevron-type plate heat exchanger with Al2O3-water nanofluids

Abstract

In this study, heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics have been experimentally investigated by using Al2O3-water nanofluids in the chevron-type plate heat exchanger. The purpose of the experiments was to determine the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop for different flow rates of 90, 120, 150, 180, 240, and 300 kg/h and different volume concentrations of 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, and 1% of the nanofluids. The Nusselt number of the nanofluids increased with the increasing volume concentration and flow rate at constant hot water flow rate and constant inlet temperatures. The increase in the Nusselt number is 42.4% when compared to distilled water at the maximum volume concentration and Reynolds number (600 ≤ Re ≤ 1900) in the nanofluids-plate heat exchanger. It has been concluded that nanofluids enhanced the heat transfer significantly and pressure drops at the maximum volume concentration and the Reynolds number increased by between 6.4% and 8.4% compared to distilled water.