Numerical investigation of convective heat transfer of single wall carbon nanotube nanofluid laminar flow inside a circular tube

Abstract

This study presents the behavior of a single wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT)/water nanofluid for convective laminar flow inside a straight circular pipe heated by a constant heat flux. Five volume fractions of SWCNT were used to investigate their effect on the heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number, temperature distribution and velocity field in comparison with pure water flow. One model for each property was tested to calculate the effective thermal conductivity, effective dynamic viscosity, and effective specific heat of the SWCNT/water mixture. The models were extracted from experimental data of a previous work. The outcomes indicate that the rheological behavior of SWCNT introduces a special effect on the SWCNT/water properties, which vary with SWCNT volume fraction. The results show an improvement in the heat transfer coefficient with increasing volume fraction of nanoparticles. The velocity of SWCNT/water nanofluid increased by adding SWCNT nanoparticles, and the maximum increase was registered at 0.05% SWCNT volume fraction. The mixture temperature is increased with the axial distance of the pipe but a reduction in temperature distribution is observed with the increasing SWCNT volume fraction, which reflects the effect of thermophysical properties of the mixture.