Effective utilization of CuO/water nanofluid potential in the natural circulation loop

Abstract

Nanofluid potential in a rectangular natural circulation loop has been carried out through numerical investigation. A rectangular loop of dimension 110 cm length, 100 cm width in which 90 cm length of the heating and cooling sections is considered, respectively. The loop is filled with water-based CuO nanofluid with volumetric concentrations 1%, 2%, and 3%. Firstly, the validation of experimental results available in the literature is validated using the present numerical model. The potential of CuO nanofluids is utilized subjected to various inlet boundary conditions temperature and mass flow rate of cold and hot working fluids. The results show that CuO nanofluid can enhance the fluid flow and thermal performance of the loop. It is observed that heat transfer enhancement diminished with vol 3% because of dominating buoyancy forces. The study found that enhancement in heat transfer 5.33% and mass flow rate of 21.29% for CuO vol 2% nanofluid than water.