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Overall heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in a typical tubular exchanger employing alumina nano-fluid as the tube side hot fluid

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Abstract

Nano-fluids are used to improve the heat transfer rates in heat exchangers, especially; the shell-and-tube heat exchanger that is considered one of the most important types of heat exchangers. In the present study, an experimental loop is constructed to study the thermal characteristics of the shell-and-tube heat exchanger; at different concentrations of Al2O3 nonmetallic particles (0.0, 2, 4, and 6 %). This material concentrations is by volume concentrations in pure water as a base fluid. The effects of nano-fluid concentrations on the performance of shell and tube heat exchanger have been conducted based on the overall heat transfer coefficient, the friction factor, the pressure drop in tube side, and the entropy generation rate. The experimental results show that; the highest heat transfer coefficient is obtained at a nano-fluid concentration of 4 % of the shell side. In shell side the maximum percentage increase in the overall heat transfer coefficient has reached 29.8 % for a nano-fluid concentration of 4 %, relative to the case of the base fluid (water) at the same tube side Reynolds number. However; in the tube side the maximum relative increase in pressure drop has recorded the values of 12, 28 and 48 % for a nano-material concentration of 2, 4 and 6 %, respectively, relative to the case without nano-fluid, at an approximate value of 56,000 for Reynolds number. The entropy generation reduces with increasing the nonmetallic particle volume fraction of the same flow rates. For increase the nonmetallic particle volume fraction from 0.0 to 6 % the rate of entropy generation decrease by 10 %.

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Abbreviations

A:

Area of heat transfer (m2)

Cp :

Specific heat capacity [J/(kg  °C)]

d:

Tube diameter (m)

D:

Shell diameter (m)

f:

Friction factor

h:

Heat transfer coefficient [W/(m2 °C)]

k:

Thermal conductivity [W/(m2 °C)]

LMTD:

Logarithmic mean temperature difference (°C)

\(\dot{m}\) :

Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Q:

Rate of heat transfer (W)

\(\dot{S}_{gen}\) :

Total entropy generation rate

T:

Temperature (°C)

U:

Overall heat transfer coefficient [W/(m2 °C)]

μ:

Dynamic viscosity (N s/m2)

ρ:

Density (kg/m3)

ψ v :

Volume fraction

ψ m :

Mass fraction

bf :

Base fluid

c, in :

Inlet cooling water

c, out :

Outlet cooling water

h, out :

Outlet hot nano-fluid

h, in :

Inlet hot nano-fluid

i :

Inner

nf :

Nano-fluid

np :

Nano-particle

o :

Outlet

sa :

Surface area

ss :

Shell side surface

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Power Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

    A. E. Kabeel & Mohamed Abdelgaied

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  1. A. E. Kabeel
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  2. Mohamed Abdelgaied
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Correspondence to A. E. Kabeel.

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Kabeel, A.E., Abdelgaied, M. Overall heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop in a typical tubular exchanger employing alumina nano-fluid as the tube side hot fluid. Heat Mass Transfer 52, 1417–1424 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-015-1662-8

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