An Empirical Study on Heat Transfer Characteristics of CuO/Base Oil Nanofluid Flow in a Tube With Coiled Wire Inserts

Abstract

In the present study, an experimental investigation has been carried out to study the heat transfer characteristics of CuO/Base oil nanofluid flow inside horizontal oiled wire inserted tubes (roughed tubes) under constant heat flux. The nanofluids with CuO nanoparticles weight fraction ranging from 0 to 2% are prepared. The oiled wires with different wire wire diameteres and different oil pitches are used as inserts inside a horizontal plain copper tube. The nanofluid flowing inside the tube is heated by electrical heating coil wrapped around it. The convective heat transfer characteristis of the prepared nanofluids are measured during laminar fully developed flow inside horizontal plain and roughed tubes under constant heat flux. The effect of different parameters such as mass velocity, wire wire diameter, oil pith, nanofluid particles concentration and heat flux on heat transfer coefficient is studied. The heat transfer coefficient is increased when a roughed tube is used instead of a plain tube. Moreover, at the same flow conditions, by increasing of wire wire diameter and decreasing of oil pitch, the heat transfer performance is improved. Observations also show that by using nanofluid instead of base fluid, the heat transfer coefficient increases and this increase grows at higher nanoparticles concentrations. As a result, it an be concluded that increasing of wire wire diameter, decreasing of oil pitch and increasing the concentration of nanoparticle, contribute to the enhancement of heat transfer coefficient.