Enhancing the Thermal Performance of Radiators using Nanofluids- A CFD Approach

Mohammad Sultan Mahmud; Fahim Rahaman Rijvi

doi:10.38032/jea.2022.02.003

Authors

Mohammad Sultan Mahmud Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna-9203, Bangladesh
Fahim Rahaman Rijvi Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna-9203, Bangladesh

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.38032/jea.2022.02.003

Keywords:

Radiator, Nanofluid, Heat Transfer, CFD

Abstract

In the present study, the thermal performance of a simple car radiator has been investigated for different conditions such as coolant type and coolant inlet velocity. Different types of nanofluids have been used as coolants such as Al₂O₃, CuO, and TiO₂ nanofluids. The base fluids taken are water and 50-50 volume percentage of water and ethylene glycol (EG) mixture. The volume percentage of 1%, 2%, and 3% of nanoparticles has been used for all the cases. The lowest outlet temperature and highest heat transfer rate are found for Water-EG based nanofluids. The lowest coolant outlet temperature (355.91 K) is found for 3 vol% of Water-EG based TiO₂ nanofluid and the highest heat transfer rate (67.87 W) is found for 3 vol% of Water-EG based CuO nanofluid. The highest outlet temperature and the lowest heat transfer rate are found to be 358.50 K and 51.73 W respectively for water-based CuO nanofluid. Nonetheless, the Water-EG based nanofluids showed better results than water-based nanofluids showing a low coolant outlet temperature and a high heat transfer rate.

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