Highlights • Measured condensing heat transfer coefficients at low mass fluxes in a smooth horizontal tube at different temperature differences.

No abstract

In this study, the heat transfer characteristics of a new class of nanofluids made from mango bark was numerically simulated and studied during turbulent flow through a double pipe heat exchanger. A range of volume fractions was considered for a particle size of 100 nm. A two-phase flow was considered using the mixture model. The mixture model governing equations of continuity, momentum, energy and volume fraction were solved using the finite-volume method. The results showed an increase of the Nusselt number by 68% for a Reynolds number of 5,000 and 45% for a Reynolds number of 13 000, and the heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid was about twice that of the base fluid. In addition, the Nusselt number decreased by an average value of 0.76 with an increase of volume fraction by 1%. It was also found that there was a range of Reynolds numbers in which the trend of the average heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid was completely reversed, and several plots showing zones of higher heat transfer which if taken advantage of in design will lead to higher heat transfer while avoiding other zones that have low heat transfer. It is hoped that these results will influence the thermal design of new heat exchangers.

It is essential to investigate the appropriate model for simulating nanofluid flow for different flow regimes because, at present, most previous studies do not agree with each other. It was, therefore, the purpose of this study to present a Computational Fluids Dynamics (CFD) investigation of heat transfer coefficients of internal forced convective flow of nanofluids in a circular tube subject to constant wall heat flux boundary conditions. A complete threedimensional (3D) cylindrical geometry was used. Laminar and turbulent flow regimes were considered. Three two-phase models (mixture model, discrete phase model (DPM) and the combined model of discrete and mixture phases) and the single-phase homogeneous model (SPM) were considered with both constant and variable properties. For the turbulent flow regime, it was found that the DPM with variable properties closely predicted the local heat transfer coefficients with an average deviation of 9%, and the SPM deviated from the DPM model by 2%. It was also found that the mixture and the combined discrete and the mixture phase model gave unrealistic results. For laminar flow, the DPM model with variable properties predicted the heat transfer coefficients with an average deviation of 9%.