Heat Transfer Enhancement of AL O - EG Nanofluid in A Car Radiator With Wire Coil Inserts
Heat Transfer Enhancement of AL O - EG Nanofluid in A Car Radiator With Wire Coil Inserts
Heat Transfer Enhancement of AL O - EG Nanofluid in A Car Radiator With Wire Coil Inserts
com/science/article/pii/S1359431117314989
Manuscript_16c27fb13cfe8ba1935129b4ff7a302d
ABSTRACT
In this experimental study, Aluminums Oxide (Al2O3) in Ethylene Glycol (EG) as nanofluid was
used for heat transfer enhancement in car radiator together with wire coil inserts. Two wire coils
inserts with different geometry and nanofluids with volume concentrations of 0.08%, 0.5% and
1% were investigated. The results indicated that the use of coils inserts enhanced heat transfer
rates up to 9 %. In addition, the simultaneous use of the coils inserts with the nanofluid with
Keywords: Heat transfer enhancement, Car radiator, wire coil inserts, nanofluid
1. Introduction:
Cooling system in engines is very important part because a lot of energy (about one third) is
wasted by this system. Therefore, if even for a short time the cooling system cause the problem
or it unable to perform his work well, it can lead to increase fuel consumption, evaporation of
1*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 741 2221711; fax: +98 741 2221711. E-mail addresses:
kgoudarzi@yu.ac.ir
1
© 2017 published by Elsevier. This manuscript is made available under the Elsevier user license
https://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/
fuel, increase pollution and this could cause irreparable damages to the vehicle engine
components. Due to the reduction of fuel consumption and power consumption in cooling
Therefore, researchers have forced to think about the different ways to enhance heat transfer and
cooling performance in the engine. There are several methods to improve the performance of the
cooling system. These methods can be divided into active and passive methods. The active
techniques require additional external power such as surface vibration and fluid injection. The
Taymaz at al. [2] conducted an experimental study of heat loss in a diesel engine with ceramic
coating. They attempted to increase the efficiency of the internal combustion engine in recent
years by reducing energy loss in the engine coolant during the cycle. The main purpose of their
study was to determine heat losses in many different engine speeds, with or without ceramic
Nomenclature
Volume ( )
Heat capacity ( )
g Gravitational acceleration ( )
2
Mass flow rate of fluid )
Nu Nusselt number
Re Reynolds Number
Friction factor
U Velocity ( )
Temperature ( )
Ambient temperature ( )
Greek symbols
Dynamic viscosity ( )
Density ( )
Subscripts
EG Ethylene glycol
H Hydraulic Diameter
I Inlet
O Outlet
Base fluid
3
Nano fluid
Nano particle
coating. The results showed that using the 0.5 mm thickness of the insulating coating on the
piston crown and cylinder head, 5 to 25 percent reduction in heat loss occurs. David Huang et al.
[3] experimentally investigated the effects of anti-freeze concentration in the engine coolant on
the cavitation temperature of a water pump. They examined the cavitation temperature of the
water pump in an engine-cooling system using three different coolants contains 100% pure
water, 50% EG/ 50% pure water and 100% EG at various rotational speeds. Three major factors
such as the quality of the coolant, the inlet temperature and the inlet pressure of the water pump
controlled the cavitation of the water pump. The results showed that engines have a higher
tolerance to air bubbles at lower rates of rotation. At a given fixed rotational speed, the tolerable
cavitation temperature of an engine’s water pump will fall slowly as the amount of air bubbles
increases. Ganga Charyulu et al. [4] presented an experimental study of performance evaluation
of a radiator mounted on a turbo-charged diesel engine with and without fouling factor. The
characteristics of the radiator analyzed for deferent tube rows with varying air mass velocities to
enable the design engineer to select the size depending upon the requirement and application.
They also examined the effect of deferent materials of construction of fins and tubes.
Vithayasai et al. [5] conducted an experimental research on the effects of the electric field on the
car radiator heat transfer performance when the air speed of the front radiator is low. Results
showed that the unit with electric field pronounced better heat transfer rate, especially at low
4
improve vehicle radiator cooling performance using nanofluid , Al2O3 / water compared to pure
water. Nanofluid at different volume concentrations of 5%, 1% and 0.1% are used in conducting
experiments. The results showed that nanofluids enhance heat transfer compared to their own
base fluid. In the best conditions, the heat transfer enhancement of about 40% compared to the
base fluids obtained. Naraki et al. [7] experimentally studied the overall heat transfer coefficient
of CuO/water nanofluids under laminar flow regime (100 < Re < 1000) in a car radiator. The
results showed that the overall heat transfer coefficient with nanofluid is more than the base
fluid. The overall heat transfer coefficient increased with the enhancement in the nanofluid
concentration from 0 to 0.4 % concentration. They also observed that the overall heat transfer
o
coefficient decreases with increasing the nanofluid inlet temperature from 50 to 80 C.
transfer in a water based nanofluid compared to that of pure water in an automobile radiator with
0.1-1 % concentration. They showed that increasing the fluid circulating rate can improve the
heat transfer performance while the fluid inlet temperature to the radiator has inconsiderable
effects. Peyghambarzadeh et al. [9] experimentally studied the overall heat transfer coefficient in
the application of dilute nanofluids (Copper oxide (CuO) and Iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles
are added to the water at three concentrations 0.15, 0.4, and 0.65 vol.%) in the car radiator. They
evaluated the heat transfer performance of the automobile radiator by calculating the overall heat
transfer coefficient (U) according to the conventional ɛ-NTU technique. Results demonstrated
that both nanofluids show greater overall heat transfer coefficient in comparison with water up to
9%. They also observed that increasing the nanoparticle concentration, air velocity, and
nanofluid velocity enhances the overall heat transfer coefficient. Ravikant et al. [10] presented a
numerical study of fluid dynamic and heat transfer performance of Al2O3 and CuO nanofluids in
5
the flat tubes of a radiator. A three-dimensional laminar flow and heat transfer with two different
nanofluids, Al2O3 and CuO, in an Ethylene Glycol and water mixture circulating through the flat
tubes of an automobile radiator numerically studied to evaluate their advantage over the base
fluid. Results for the local and the average friction factor and convective heat transfer coefficient
Most studies have been concerned with passive methods. Recent interests in the use of tube
insert [11] and nanofluids [12] for possible heat transfer intensification have attracted the
attention of many investigators. Also some researchers have focused on improving heat transfer
by nanofluid and twisted and wire coiled inserts [13-16]. Syam Sundar et al. [17] experimentally
nanocomposite nanofluids flow in a tube with/without longitudinal strip inserts. They showed
that the Nusselt number enhancement for 0.3% nanofluid flow in a tube without inserts is
32.72% and with inserts of aspect ratio 1 is 50.99% at a Reynolds number of 22,000. Chougule
et al. [18] presented a experiment study of heat transfer enhancements of low volume
concentration CNT/water nanofluid and wire coil inserts in a circular tube. They also observed
that the use of nanofluids increases the heat transfer rate with negligible increase in friction
factor in the plain tube and the tube fitted with wire coil inserts. Also, experimental investigation
on heat transfer enhancement of a tube with coiled-wire inserts installed with a separation from
From the above literature review, it can be noted that many of the investigations found in the
literature described above did not focused on both passive technique of nanofluid and wire coiled
inserts. Hence, the aim of the present study is to study both the heat transfer coefficient and
friction factor in the turbulent flow of Al2O3/EG nanofluid in car radiator with and without wire
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coil insert, because the thermo-hydraulic behavior of wire coil inserts with and without
The experimental setup is shown in Fig.1. Also, the experimental setup is shown schematically
(1) Tank: the reservoir has a capacity of about 18 liters of cooling fluid that the coolant is placed
in it. 6 heat electrical elements used in the tank to raise the temperature of the coolant fluid,
similar to engine temperature rises during operation, which is about 80 . (2) Pump: a pump
with Diamond QB-60 model used, which has a Qmax=35 lit/min, Hmax=35 m, 0.5 hp power and
is around 2850 rpm. This pump is one step and using a tap placed on the pump output can be
different to the flow rate adjusted. (3)Radiator: the radiator used in this article belongs to the
Peugeot 405 vehicle. This radiator as the heat exchanger is a compact heat exchanger which
contains 40 channels with dimensions of 24*1.5 mm. (4) Fan: According to the vehicle structure
(Peugeot 405) fans are used behind the radiator. The fan with C78/22/4SO model and with
specifications PH:1, HZ:50. V: 220 used. Fan speed is adjustable in the trial of three low,
medium and high. (5) Controller device: This device contains fuses regarding a thermal element
and pump, digital displayer, temperature sensor connected to the radiator inlet and screws to
adjust fan speed. By the fluid inlet temperature to the radiator temperature sensor shows and
according to the desired temperature of the fluid control device is set on it, electric heating
elements off, and if the temperature is set lower, connected. Digital displayer shows the inlet
temperature of the fluid to the radiator. (6) Rotameter: Flowmeter used in this study is rotameter
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with LIQID-SP.GR.1.O model. This flowmeter installed at the entrance to the radiator. (7)
Pressure gauges: In the Experimental setup of the two pressure gauges with EN-837-3 models in
the pressure range from 0-160 mbar is used. It installed at the input and output of radiator. (8)
Thermocouples: Two thermocouples (type K) are used to measure the fluid temperature in the
input and output of radiator. Other thermocouples are used for measuring the temperature on the
radiator body wall. By connecting all the thermocouple to the data logger with model TES 1384,
In this study, Al2O3 nanoparticles with an average size of 40 nm are used. EG is used as the base
The physical properties of nanoparticles are listed in Table 1. The SEM (scanning electron
microscope) micrograph of the prepared sample is shown in Figs. 3. There are three techniques
for the preparation of nano-fluids with the final stability of dispersions [20]; (1) changing the pH
value of suspensions; (2) adding the surface activators to the suspensions; (3) putting in an
ultrasonic apparatus. In this study, ultrasonic apparatus is used for the preparation of nano-fluid.
The first stage is to mix nanoparticles in Ethylene glycol and the second stage is to homogenize
the mixture using ultrasonic vibration (UP-400S model), which is depicted in Fig. 4 with
working frequency of 24 kHz and useful output power of 400 W. After sonification for
nanoparticle sedimentation. Since the sonication time is an important factor for breaking down
agglomerates, uniform dispersion and stable suspension of nanoparticles in liquid this time was
selected 30 min after several tests. In present work, three volume concentrations contains 0.08%,
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The tube inserts are made of copper strip from 0.3 mm thick and 0.013 m width in the Energy
Research Laboratory (Yasouj University). Two used configurations in the present work are
shown in Fig. 5. Also, wire coil inserts having pitch ratios of 2 are used in present work.
In this study, by measuring the temperature and pressure in certain areas such as, input and
output radiator, radiator wall temperature and ambient temperature at different flow rate; the heat
transfer coefficient and friction factor are determined. Also, the effect of parameters such as
mass flow rate, fan speed, tube insert geometry and concentration of the nano-fluid studied.
(1)
Where, ΔP is the pressure difference between the inlet fluid and outlet fluid in the radiator. , is
hydraulic diameter in the radiator pipes, which of the following equation is obtained [21].
(2)
Where and are the volume and height of the radiator, respectively, where V is obtained from
this equation.
(3)
Where and are cross- sectional area pipe and length of the radiator, respectively. Also,
Mean flow velocity in the radiator is calculated from the continuum equation.
The heat transfer coefficient and corresponding Nusselt number can be derived as follows:
The heat transfer rates due to the fluid flowing inside the tube to the outside air flowing in the air
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(4)
(5)
Where Qf1 and Qf2 are the heat transfer rates for the radiator using two different calculation
methods. is mass flow rate. AS, is the surface area of the radiator. Tb is bulk temperature
which is assumed to be the average values of inlet (T i) and outlet (To) temperatures of the fluid
moving through the radiator, and is tube wall temperature which is the mean value measured
(6)
(7)
(8)
Then, The heat transfer coefficient and corresponding Nusselt number is obtained from eq’s (9)
and (10).
(9)
(10)
Where, k is fluid thermal conductivity. Also all the physical properties were calculated at the
The thermal performance factor of the radiator with coil wire inserts under same pumping power
(11)
Where hr and hrc are the heat transfer coefficient for the radiator without inserts and heat transfer
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If nanofluid is used as the working fluid, is calculated by [20]:
(12)
and are the heat capacity and density of nanofluid respectively. These parameters can be
(13)
(14)
where suggests the volume fraction of nanoparticles. Also, Viscosity of nanofluids was
(15)
In this study, two tube inserts with various geometries are investigated. Also, from
nanoparticles to reinforce the thermal properties of the base fluid (EG) used. These experiments
in three flow rate of 11, 12.25 and 13.50 lit/min and the Reynolds number in the range of
18500<Re<22700 and three fan speed (rpm) 750, 1100 and 1220(rpm) is investigated. Nanofluid
In present work, to investigate the effect of tube inserts three cases have been examined. In the
first case, coil wires (type A) are inserted in the left channels and in the second case, coil wires
(type B) are inserted in the right channels (Fig. 6). But in the final case, both coil wire insert are
embedded together across all channels. TIT1, TIT2 and TIT3 represents for the first case, second
case and third case, respectively. In other words, TIT1 represents first case where coils (type A)
located on the left side of radiator. TIT2 represents second case where coils (type B) located on
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the right side of radiator. TIT3 represents third case where coils (type A) located on the left side
Also, comparison was made between the experimental data and empirical correlations developed
by Gnielinsky [1].
(16)
(17)
Nusselt number of base fluid in radiator with different coil wire inserts is shown in Fig. 7. The
experimental results clearly show that the Nusselt number increased by increasing the Reynolds
number in all states. In addition, by using coil wire inserts in the radiator the Nu number
increased compared to radiator without tube inserts. Results show that An increase of 2% , 4%
and 9% in Nusselt number for a Reynolds number of 22672 is observed for wire coil inserts
TIT1, TIT2 and TIT3, respectively. The main reason for this increase is the Nusselt number is
the use of wire coil inserts which increases the energy exchange rates in the fluid. Also, In Fig. 7
good agreement can be seen between empirical correlations and the results obtained in this study.
Fig. 8 shows the Nusselt number of the fluid in radiator at Re = 22672 for the different fan speed
in the range of 750<N<1220. In all cases, with or without tube inserts, Nusselt number increased
with increasing speed of cooling fan. The largest increase in Nusselt number about 7% is related
Fig. 9 shows the effect of concentration of AL2O3/EG nanofluid on Nusselt number of the
radiator with tube inserts type TIT3. The results show that the Nusselt number increased with
increasing AL2O3 concentration and all AL2O3/EG nanofluids gave higher Nusselt number than
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EG as the based fluid. The main reasons for this increase are the ability of suspended
exchange. Of course the differences between these concentrations are not very noticeable.
Nusselt number in Fig. 8 shows that the presence of AL2O3 at 0.08%, 0.5% and 1% vol.
concentration enhanced Nusselt number by 11%, 12.5% and 13%, respectively, compared to that
of EG as base fluid at Re = 22672. Fig. 10 shows the Nusselt number at Re = 22672 for the
different speed of cooling fan. Nusselt number increased with increasing the speed of cooling fan
for all concentration. The largest increase in Nusselt number about 7% is related to the third case
at N = 1220 (approx.). The minimum and maximum change in Nusslet number by fan speed are
The friction factor of the radiator with tube inserts are represented in Fig. 11. The use of tube
inserts resulted in an increase in friction factor compared to the radiator without tube inserts. As
shown in Fig. 11, the maximum friction factor with tube inserts TIT3 was found. In addition, at
the same Reynolds number, TIT3 caused 2.3-5% higher friction factor than the TIT1 and 18-
33.5% higher friction factor than the radiator without tube inserts. Also, the friction factor of
AL2O3 nanofluid is shown in Fig. 12. The friction factor of AL2O3 nanofluid is high compared to
the friction factor of EG as base fluid. At the same Reynolds number, nanofluids with different
volume concentration caused 1-11.8% higher friction factor than the radiator with tube insert
TIT3 and 20-47.5% higher friction factor than the radiator without tube inserts. The main reason
for the enhancement of friction factor is solid nanoparticles present in the base fluid.
Although tubes insert increases heat transfer, it leads to more pressure drop. To evaluate the
effects of tube insert on heat transfer and pressure drop, thermal performance factor as regard eq.
11 is defined. The thermal performance factor for all tube inserts increased with an increasing
13
Reynolds number shown in Fig. 13. With the use of TIT1, TIT2 and TIT3, thermal performance
factors were in a range between, 1.0.19–1.021, 1.039–1.043 and 1.079–1.087 respectively. The
results show that the values of thermal performance factor are not significantly different for
different cases. On the other hand, thermal performance factor is more than 1 in all of cases, and
it can be concluded that this technique can be used in car radiators to improve heat transfer.
Experimental uncertainties in these parameters including the friction factor and Nusselt number
were estimated by the procedure described in [22]. The mean uncertainties are 3.7% in the
5. Conclusions
Experimental studies of heat transfer, friction factor and thermal performance factor
characteristics of car radiator with coil wire inserts and AL2O3 nanofluid have been presented.
The coil wire inserts with different configuration and AL2O3 nanofluid with different volume
1. Nusselt number at Reynolds number in the range of 18500<Re<22700 with coil wire inserts
2. Nusselt number at Reynolds number in the range of 18500<Re<22700 with tube inserts (type
TIT3) and nanofluids with the volume concentrations of 0.08%, 0.5% and 1% is higher when
3. Nusselt number at Reynolds number of 18500 with the coil wire inserts (TIT1, TIT2 and
TIT3) and the volume concentrations of 0.08%, 0.5% and 1% for the different fan speed in the
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4. Frication factor at Reynolds number in the range of 18500<Re<22700 with the coil wire
inserts (TIT1, TIT2 and TIT3) and the volume concentrations of 0.08%, 0.5% and 1% is higher
5. There is no significant difference in thermal performance factor at the different coil wire
inserts. In all of cases, thermal performance factor is more than 1, and can be concluded that this
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15
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friction factor characteristics of Al2O3/water nanofluid in a circular pipe under laminar flow with
wire coil inserts, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 122–130.
16
[14] L. Syam Sundar, N.T. Ravi Kumar, M.T. Naik, K.V. Sharma, Effect of full length twisted
tape inserts on heat transfer and friction factor enhancement with Fe 3O4 magnetic nanofluid
inside a plain tube: An experimental study, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55
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[16] L. Syam Sundar, K.V. Sharma, Heat transfer enhancements of low volume concentration
Al2O3 nanofluid and with longitudinal strip inserts in a circular tube, International Journal of
[17] L. Syam Sundar, G. Otero-Irurueta, Manoj K. Singh, Antonio C.M. Sousa; Heat transfer and
tube with/without longitudinal strip inserts; International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 100
[18] S. S. Chougule, Vishal V. Nirgude, Prajakta D. Gharge, Mayank Modak, S. K. Sahu; heat
transfer enhancements of low volume concentration CNT/water nanofluid and wire coil inserts in
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17
[20] K. Goudarzi , F. Nejati, E. Shojaeizadeh, S.K. Asadi Yousef-abad, Experimental study on
the effect of pH variation of nanofluids on the thermal efficiency of a solar collector with helical
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Fig.2. Schematic of the experimental apparatus; (1) tank, (2) pump, (3) radiator, (4) fan, (5)
controller device, (6) rotameter, (7) pressure gauge, (8) thermocouple, (9) elements, (10) line
19
Fig. 4. The ultrasonic device, A: the concentrations of 0.08%, B: the concentrations of 0.50%, c:
Fig. 6. Tube insert located in tube; type A is inserted in left channel (TIT1), type B is inserted in
right channel (TIT2), The combination of both TIT1 and TIT2 (TIT3)
20
Basic TIT1 TIT2 TIT3 Gnielinsky
250
230
210
Nu
190
170
150
18596 21177 22672
Re
Fig. 7. Experimental Nusselt number of Ethylene glycol with different tube inserts.
240
220
Nu
200
180
160
140
700 775 850 925 1000 1075 1150 1225
N(rpm)
Fig. 8. Experimental Nusselt number of Ethylene glycol with tube insert for the different speed.
21
Basic TIT3-0.08% TIT3-0.5% TIT3-1.0%
270
250
230
Nu
210
190
170
18596 21177 22672
Re
22
Basic TIT3-0.08% TIT3-0.5% TIT3-1.0%
270
260
250
240
230
220
Nu
210
200
190
180
170
160
150
140
700 750 800 850 900 950 1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1250
N(rpm)
Fig. 10. Experimental Nusselt number of nano-fluid with tube insert (TIT3) for various speeds.
41
TIT1 TIT2 TIT3
39
37
35
f (10-2)
33
31
29
27
25
18596 21177 22672
23
TIT3-0.08% TIT3-0.5% TIT3-1.0%
45
43
41
39
f (10-2) 37
35
33
31
29
27
25
18596 21177 22672
Fig. 12. Experimental friction factor of EG and different volume concentrations of AL2O3
1.2
1.15
1.1
1.05
1
η
0.95
0.9 TIT1 TIT2 TIT3
0.85
0.8
0.75
18596 21177 22672
Fig. 13. Thermal performance factor Vs Reynolds number for tube inserts.
Tables:
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Table 1. The specifications of the used nanoparticles in the current study.
Nano Purity Diameter Morphology Color Heat thermal Density
fluid (%) (nm) capacity conductivity (kg/m3)
(J/kg K) (W/m K)
Al2O3 99 40 Nearly spherical White 880 40 3890
Highlights:
25