Heat Transfer Enhancement in a Double Pipe Heat Exchanger using Zinc Oxide Nanofluid

Abstract

Water is majorly used as a coolant in both industries and vehicles but there are certain drawbacks associated with it. The extent to which heat can be absorbed is low and the range of the cooling operation is limited by the boiling and freezing points of water. Work is being done to compress these constrictions by using coolant with Zinc Oxide nanoparticles to enhance the overall heat transfer coefficient. The work is intended to assess the variation in the degree of heat transfer by physical experimentation. For the experimentation purpose, a Double Pipe Heat Exchanger was fabricated. The nanoparticles selected were Zinc oxide and they were prepared in the laboratory by various methods. The samples were analyzed by using methods of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray powder diffraction. The range of 30-50 nm prepared nanoparticles was selected. Different concentration of nanoparticles was added in base fluid which decides the degree of heat transfer. Finally, on running the experiment an increase in the overall coefficient from 31.43% -44.88% (theoretical) and 2.78% - 11.8% (experimental) was observed.