Analytical Investigation of Total Heat Transfer Rate and Effectiveness of Straight (Plate) Fin Compact Heat Exchanger using Nano-fluid coolants

Abstract

Compact heat exchangers are widely used in various applications in thermal fluid systems.
The traditional approach of increasing the total heat transfer rate by using fins & micro
channel has already reached to their limit. Hence there is a need for new & innovative heat
transfer fluids for improving heat transfer called nano-fluid. This work presents a detailed
numerical investigation on compact heat exchanger by using different nano-particles in base
fluid 90% water-10% EG as a coolant for straight fin geometry. For the numerical
investigation computer codes are developed in MATLAB language.
A theoretical analysis is presented to investigate the thermal performance of a compact heat
exchanger by using SiO2,TiO2&ZnOnano particles in mixture of 90% water & 10% EG.
Different correlations are used based on the experimental work on the same group of nano
fluid. Calculation of total heat transfer rate is done on the heat transfer performance of a
compact heat exchanger operating with mixture of water and ethylene glycol based nano
fluid keeping in mind the impact of Brownian motion of the nano particle at higher
temperature with the straight fin.. Detailed flow chart of the numerical method, correlations
used for nano fluid, effects of various operating parameters are presented as well.
Result show that 90% water and 10% EG base fluid using nano particles is very effective
coolant than 90% water and 10% EG coolant only. But cooling performance of 90% water
and 10% EG based coolant can be increased effectively by the use of nano particles. On
comparing cooling capacity (total heat transfer rate) for straight fin geometry it is observed
that 12 % to 16% enhancement has been seen in the cooling capacity when W-EG nano fluid
based coolant is used. By the present analysis it is found that SiO2 based nano fluids is better
than that of TiO2 and ZnO based nano fluids.