Experimental study of heat transfer enhancement using water/ethylene glycol based

nanouids as a new coolant for car radiators

S.M. Peyghambarzadeh
a
, S.H. Hashemabadi
b,
, S.M. Hoseini
a
, M. Sei Jamnani
a
a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Mahshahr branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr, Iran
b
CFD Research Laboratory, School of Chemical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak, Tehran, 16846, Iran
a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o
Available online 16 July 2011
Keywords:
Water/Al
2
O
3
nanouid
Ethylene glycol/Al
2
O
3
nanouid
Heat transfer enhancement
Car radiator
Cooling performance
Experimental study
Traditionally forced convection heat transfer in a car radiator is performed to cool circulating uid which
consisted of water or a mixture of water and anti-freezing materials like ethylene glycol (EG). In this paper,
the heat transfer performance of pure water and pure EG has been compared with their binary mixtures.
Furthermore, different amounts of Al
2
O
3
nanoparticle have been added into these base uids and its effects on
the heat transfer performance of the car radiator have been determined experimentally. Liquid ow rate has
been changed in the range of 26 l per minute and the uid inlet temperature has been changed for all the
experiments. The results demonstrate that nanouids clearly enhance heat transfer compared to their own
base uid. In the best conditions, the heat transfer enhancement of about 40% compared to the base uids has
been recorded.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
After the publication of our previous paper [1] about the
application of water/Al
2
O
3
nanouids instead of pure water in the
car radiator and recording the interesting heat transfer enhancement
of about 45%, we want to investigate the application of nanoparticle in
the mixture of water and anti-freeze materials (as the base uid)
which is conventionally used in the cars' radiators. It is common in the
area of cold or hot weathers that some additives are added to the
water in the automotive radiator which decrease freezing point and
elevate boiling point of water. It keeps the radiator uid fromfreezing
when it is very cold and keeps the car from overheating on very hot
days. Almost all of these additives are from glycol family specially
ethylene glycol (EG). The major use of EG is as a medium for
convective heat transfer in, for example car radiators, liquid cooled
computers, chilled water air conditioning systems, and the like.
Because water is a much better engine coolant, the mixture of water
and EG has been used. The trouble with water is that it freezes or boils
at extreme temperatures. Anti-freezing agents like EG can withstand
much greater temperature extremes, so by adding it to water we can
make a compromise. Most of the good cooling abilities of water are
retained but the ability to withstand extreme temperatures comes
from the anti-freeze. As can be seen in Fig. 1, a mixture of 60% EG and
40% water does not freeze to temperatures below45 C. EG disrupts
hydrogen bonding when dissolved in water. Pure EG freezes at about
12 C, but when intermixed with water, the freezing point of the
mixture is depressed signicantly. The minimum freezing point is
observedwhenthe EGpercent inwater is about 70%, as showninFig. 1.
However, the boiling point for aqueous EG increases monotonically
with increasing EG percentage. Thus, the use of EG not only declines
the freezing point but also elevates the boiling point such that the
operating range for the heat transfer uid is broadened onboth ends of
the temperature scale [2].
It has been proved that conventional uids, such as water and EG
have poor convective heat transfer performance and therefore high
compactness and effectiveness of heat transfer systems are necessary
to achieve the required heat transfer. Among the efforts for
enhancement of heat transfer the application of nanoparticle additives
to liquids is more noticeable and currently a large number of
investigations are devoted to this subject [38]. Nanouids are formed
by suspending metallic or non-metallic oxide nanoparticles (that are
signicantly smaller than 100 nm) in traditional heat transfer uids.
These so-called nanouids display good thermal properties compared
with uids conventionally used for heat transfer and uids containing
particles on the micrometer scale. These uids are a new window
which has been opened recently and it was conrmed by several
authors that these working uids can enhance heat transfer perfor-
mance [9,10].
In the car radiators, the coolant media is pumped through the at
tubes while the air is drawn over the ns by forced convection,
thereby heat exchanges between the hot circulating uid and air. The
application of nanouids in these nned tube radiators may result in
several potential benets including increased heating output for equal
liquid ow. These performance impacts, in turn, may be translated
into a reduction in total required heat transfer area. Superior heat
transfer properties of nanouids may also result in lower liquid ow
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 12831290
Communicated by W.J. Minkowycz.
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hashemabadi@iust.ac.ir (S.H. Hashemabadi).
0735-1933/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2011.07.001
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er. com/ l ocat e/ i chmt
rate for a given rate of heat transfer, yielding a reduction in the liquid
pumping power consumed compared to the base uid. In order to
have more understanding about the application of nanouids in
various heat exchangers, a brief literature survey is performed in this
paper.
Pak and Cho [11] presented an experimental investigation of the
convective turbulent heat transfer characteristics of nanouids
(Al
2
O
3
water) with 1 to 3 vol.%. Their results show that Nusselt
number for the nanouids enhances with increasing of volume
concentration and Reynolds number. Heris et al. [12] examined and
proved the enhancement of in-tube laminar ow heat transfer of
nanouids (waterAl
2
O
3
) in a constant wall temperature boundary
condition. In other work, Heris et al. [13] presented an investigation of
the laminar ow convective heat transfer of Al
2
O
3
water under
constant wall temperature with 0.2 to 2.5 vol.% of nanoparticle for
Reynolds number varying between 700 and 2050. They presented
again the Nusselt number for the nanouid which is greater than the
base uid. Lai et al. [14] studied the ow behavior of nanouids
(20 nm Al
2
O
3
nanoparticle in water) in a millimeter-sized stainless
steel test tube, subjected to constant wall heat ux and a lowReynolds
number (Reb270). The maximum promotion of Nusselt number for
1 vol.% nanouid was 8%. Jung et al. [15] conducted convective heat
transfer experiments for a nanouid (Al
2
O
3
water) in a rectangular
micro-channel under laminar ow conditions. Their results show the
heat transfer coefcient increases by more than 32% for 1.8 vol.%
nanoparticle. Sharma et al. [16] implemented 1 to 2.5 vol.% Al
2
O
3
in
water in horizontal tube geometry and concluded while the Peclet
number is between 3500 and 6000, up to 41% promotion in heat
transfer coefcient compared to pure water may have occurred. Ho et
al. [17] conducted an experiment for cooling in horizontal tube in
laminar ow of Al
2
O
3
water at 1 and 2 vol.% concentrations and
concluded the interesting enhancement of 51% in heat transfer
coefcient. Nguyen et al. [18] performed their experiments in a
microprocessor type cooling heat exchanger and at 6.8 vol.% Al
2
O3 in
water obtained 40% growing in heat transfer coefcient. Xie et al. [19]
reported the convective heat transfer enhancement of nanouids as
coolants in laminar ows inside a circular copper tube with constant
wall temperature. Different nanouids consisting of Al
2
O
3
, ZnO, TiO
2
,
and MgO nanoparticles were prepared with a mixture of 55 vol.%
distilled water and 45 vol.% EG as base uid. MgO, Al
2
O
3
, and ZnO
nanouids exhibited superior enhancements of heat transfer coef-
cient, with the highest enhancement up to 252% at a Reynolds number
of 1000 for MgO nanouid. The performance of nned tube heating
units with nanouids has been compared mathematically with a
conventional heat transfer uid which comprised of 60% EG and 40%
water by Strandberg and Das [20]. Their model predicted an 11.6%
increase in nned tube heating output under certain conditions with
the 4% Al
2
O
3
/60% EG nanouid and an 8.7% increase with the 4%
CuO/60% EG nanouid compared to heating output with the base
uid. Application of EG based copper nanouids in an automotive
cooling system has been studied by Leong et al. [21]. Relevant input
data, nanouid properties and empirical correlations were obtained
from literatures to investigate the heat transfer enhancement of an
automotive car radiator operated with nanouid-based coolants. It is
observed that, about 3.8% of heat transfer enhancement could be
achieved with the addition of 2% copper nanoparticles in a base uid
at the Reynolds number of 6000 and 5000 for air and coolant
respectively. Some extensive reviews in the nanouid heat transfer
have also been published by Godson et al. [22], Kaka et al. [23] and
Wang et al. [24]. The interested reader can refer to them for complete
reviewing of the previous studies performed.
It should be emphasized that almost no document can be found to
describe experimental evaluation of nanouid performance in the car
radiator. In this paper, experimental comparisons have been accom-
plished between the heat transfer performance of pure water and
pure EG and some concentrations of their mixtures in the car radiator.
Nomenclature
A Peripheral area (m
2
)
C
p
Specic heat capacity (J/kg K)
d Hydraulic diameter of the tube (m)
d
p
Diameter of the nanoparticles (m)
f Friction factor
h Heat transfer coefcient (W/m
2
K)
k Thermal conductivity (W/m K)
L Length of the tube (m)
m Mass ow rate (kg/s)
Nu Nusselt number = (hd
hy
/k)
P Tube periphery (m)
Pe Peclet number = Re.Pr
Pr Prandtl number = (C
p
/k)
Q Heat transfer rate (W)
Re Reynolds number = (ud
hy
/)
S Cross sectional area of the tube (m
2
)
T Temperature (K)
V
B
Brownian velocity
z Axial distance from the tube inlet (m)
Greek letters
Thermal diffusivity (m
2
/s)
Density (kg/m
3
)
Distance between the centers of the particles (m)
Viscosity (kg/m.s)
Nanoparticle volume fraction (%)
Shape factor
Particle sphericity
Subscripts
ave Average
b Bulk
bf Base uid
exp Experimental
in Input
nf Nanouid
out Output
p Particle
w Wall
Fig. 1. Boiling and freezing points of water/EG mixtures [2].
1284 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 12831290
How do anti-freeze materials like EG affect the heat transfer
performance of the radiator? What happens when you increase the
EG concentration? Furthermore, when small amounts of alumina
nanoparticle are added to water or EG or their mixtures, does the rate
of heat transfer change compared with the base uids? What will be
the effects of operating parameters like nanoparticle concentration,
ow rate, and temperature of circulating uid on the heat transfer
performance? These are the main questions which have been
answered along this paper.
2. Experimental
2.1. Experimental rig and procedure
In order to measure the liquid side heat transfer coefcients in the
car radiator, a ow loop shown in Fig. 2(A) has been used. This
experimental rig includes a storage tank, a heater, a pump, a ow
meter, a forced draft fan, a cross ownned tube heat exchanger (car
radiator), and ow lines. The test uid ows through the ve layer
insulated tubes (0.75 inch diameter) from the feed tank to the
radiator by a centrifugal pump with constant ow rate of 10 l per
minute. A recycle line included a globe valve was prepared to obtain
the predetermined ow rate. Storage tank (height of 35 cm and
diameter of 30 cm) has volume of 30 l and the working liquid would
ll 25%. Consequently, the total volume of the circulating liquid is
constant in all the experiments. A ow meter (Technical Group LZM-
15Z Type) was used to control and manipulate the ow rate with the
precision of 0.1 l per minute.
For heating the working uid, an electrical heater and a controller
were used to maintain the temperature between 40 and 80 C. Two
RTDs (Pt-100 ) were implemented on the ow line to record
radiator uid inlet and outlet temperatures. Two other J-type
thermocouples were also used for radiator wall temperature
measurement. These thermocouples were installed at the center of
the radiator surfaces (both sides). Due to very small thickness and
very high thermal conductivity of the at tubes, it is reasonable to
equate the inside temperature of the tube with the outside one. The
measured temperatures from these thermocouples and RTDs have
been shown on two digital monitors with the accuracy of 0.1 C. All
used thermocouples and RTDs were thoroughly calibrated by using a
constant temperature water bath, and their accuracy was estimated to
be 0.2 C.
Fig. 2. A) Schematic of experimental set up. B) Schematic drawing of the applied louvered n and at tube radiator and their dimensions.
1285 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 12831290
Car radiator conguration is louvered n and at tube as shown in
Fig. 2(B). This air cooler includes 34 vertical aluminum tubes with
elliptical cross section. The distances between the tube rows have
been lled with thin perpendicular aluminum ns. For cooling the
liquid, an axial forced fan (Techno Pars 1400 rpm) was installed close
on axis line of the radiator and consequently air and water have
indirect cross ow contact.
Gamma alumina nanoparticles (0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 1 vol.%) have
been added to different base uids including pure water, pure EG and
their mixtures (5, 10, 20 vol.% EG). The mean grain size of this gamma
alumina is 20 nm and some of its other properties are shown in
Table 1. There was no dispersant or stabilizer added to the nanouid.
This is due to the fact that the addition of any agent may change the
uid properties [11] and the authors were interested to simulate the
easiest actual condition encountered in the car radiator. Additionally,
creating highly turbulent ow condition in the radiator tubes and
connecting pipes can improve the stabilization of the nanoparticle in
water. Table 2 shows the ranges of all the experimental parameters.
2.2. Uncertainty analysis
Uncertainty analysis is carried out by calculating the error of the
measurements. The uncertainty range of Reynolds number comes
fromthe errors in the measurement of volume owrate and hydraulic
diameter of the tubes and the uncertainty of Nusselt number refers to
the errors in the measurements of volume ow rate, hydraulic
diameter, and all the temperatures. According to uncertainty analysis
described by Moffat [25], the measurement errors of the main
parameters are summarized in Table 3. Furthermore, to check the
reproducibility of the experiments, some runs were repeated later
which proved to be excellent.
3. Estimation of nanouid physical properties
By assuming that the nanoparticles are well dispersed within the
base uid, i.e. the particle concentration can be considered uniform
throughout the system; the effective thermophysical properties of the
mixtures can be evaluated using some classical formulas as usually
used for two phase ow. The following correlations have been used to
predict nanouid density, specic heat, and thermal conductivity
respectively at different temperatures and concentrations [2628]:

nf
=
p
+ 1
bf
1
C
p
_ _
nf
= C
p
_ _
p
+ 1 C
p
_ _
bf
2
k
nf
=
k
p
+ 1 k
bf
1 k
bf
k
p
_ _
k
p
+ 1 k
bf
+ k
bf
k
p
_ _ k
bf
3
Where is empirical shape factor given by =3/, and is the
particle sphericity, that is dened as the ratio of the surface area of a
sphere with volume equal to that of the particle, to the surface area of
the particle, and in this paper is considered to be 3.
For calculation of water based nanouid viscosities, the following
correlation has been applied [2628]:

nf
=
bf
123
2
+ 7:3 + 1
_ _
4
For EG based and mixture based nanouids, the correlation
proposed by Masoumi et al. [29] has been used:

nf
=
bf
+

p
V
B
d
2
p
72C
5
Where the second term is the apparent viscosity arising from the
effects of nanoparticles in the uid. The distance between the centers
of the nanoparticles, and correction factor (C) are calculated
respectively:
=

6
3
_
d
p
6
C =
1
bf
a + b 7
Where a and b are experimental parameters, which for the engine
coolantAl
2
O
3
nanouids were estimated to be 0.00004 and
7.127410
7
, respectively [30]. Various correlations were proposed
for temperature dependence of the nanouid viscosity. Kole and Dey
[30] showed only that the following correlation proposed by Namburu
et al. [31] can give an acceptable agreement to the temperature
dependence of viscosity of the Al
2
O
3
/conventional coolant nanouids.
log
nf
_ _
= M exp NT 8
Where two parameters (M and N) are functions of nanoparticle
concentration [30]. Table 4 depicts pure water and pure EG physical
properties. As can be seen in Table 4, these two base uids show
signicant differences in the physical properties. The mentioned
water/EG mixture properties in Table 4 were used by Dai et al. [35] to
develop computational models for the calculations of water/EG
physical properties. Their ndings were also used whenever no
experimental data existed.
Table 3
The uncertainty of the measured parameters.
Parameter Value Uncertainty
d (mm) 6.53 1.6%
Re 1200 to 23,000 5.2%
Nu 24 to 120 18%
Table 1
Some characteristics of alumina nanoparticle.
Specication Value
Appearance White powder
Purity +99%
Grain size (nm) 20
Specic surface area (m
2
/g) 200
Silicon (Si) (ppm) 3.5
Calcium (Ca) (ppm) 1.6
Iron (Fe) (ppm) 0.2
Cobalt (Co) (ppm) 0.8
Table 2
Range of experimental operational conditions.
Parameters Water based nanouids EG based nanouids
Nanoparticle type -Al
2
O
3
-Al
2
O
3
Nanoparticle concentration
(vol.%)
0 to 1 0 to 1
Flow rate (l/min) 2 to 5 3 to 6
Reynolds number 9000 to 23,000 1200 to 2500
Flow type Turbulent Laminar
Inlet temperature 35 to 50 C 45 to 60 C
1286 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 12831290
4. Calculation of heat transfer coefcient
The heat transfer coefcient and corresponding Nusselt number
can be derived as follows [1]:
Nu =
h:d
k
=
mC
p
T
in
T
out

A T
b
T
w

9
where mis mass owrate which is the product of density and volume
ow rate of the uid, T
b
is bulk temperature which is assumed to be
the average values of inlet and outlet temperatures of the uid
moving through the radiator, and T
w
is tube wall temperature which
is the mean value measured by two surface thermocouples. In Eq. (9),
k is uid thermal conductivity and d is hydraulic diameter of the at
tube. It should also be mentioned that all the physical properties were
calculated at the uid bulk temperature.
5. Results and discussions
5.1. Heat transfer to pure water and pure EG
Before runningthe experiments onthe nanouids as a coolant for car
radiator, some tests with pure water and pure EG were done in order to
check the reliability and accuracy of the experimental setup. Fig. 3(A)
shows the experimental results for water ow through the radiator at
constant inlet temperature of 50 C. It is shownthat the higher Reynolds
number increases the heat transfer coefcient of pure water. The
experimental data has been compared with following empirical
correlation suggested by DittusBoelter [36] in turbulent ow:
Nu = 0:0236Re
0:8
Pr
0:3
10
Two correlations were developed by Vajjha et al. [37] for
nanouids from the numerical analysis of the at tube geometry
which were shown in Eq. (11):
Nu = 1:9421 RePr
D
h
z
_ _
0:3
RePr
d
z
_ _
33:33
Nu = 6:1 + 0:003675 RePr
D
h
z
_ _
RePr
d
z
_ _
33:33
_

_
11
The average Nusselt number can be calculated as follow:
Nu
ave:
=
1
L

L
0
Nu: dz 12
Fig. 3(B) represents the comparison of experimental results for pure
EG entering the radiator at constant temperature of 40 C with the
predictionof Vajjha et al. [37] correlationinlaminar ow. As canbe seen
in Fig. 3(A) and 3(B), the experimental results show good agreements
with these empirical correlations over the Reynolds number range used
in this study. The experimental data in different water temperatures at
the radiator inlet including 35, 45, and 50 C have 10% absolute average
error withrespect to DittusBoelter [36] relationand for all the different
EG temperatures at the radiator inlet including 40, 45, and 50 C, Vajjha
et al.'s [37] relation has 6% absolute average error.
5.2. Heat transfer to water based and EG based nanouids
The nanouid is implemented in different Al
2
O
3
concentrations,
i.e. 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 1 vol.% and at different ow rates of 2, 3, 4, 5,
and 6 l per minute. In order to consider the effect of temperature on
thermal performance of the radiator, different inlet temperatures
have been applied for each concentration. The inlet temperatures
include 35, 45, and 50 C for the water based nanouids and 45, 50,
and 60 C for EG based nanouids. Fig. 4(A) and (B) shows the heat
transfer enhancement due to the replacement of water as a
conventional coolant with water and EG based nanouids respective-
ly. As can be seen, the ratio of the nanouid Nusselt number to the
base uid Nusselt number (Nu
nf
/Nu
bf
) has increased by enhancement
in the concentrations of nanoparticle at constant Reynolds number for
both nanouids. By the addition of only 1 vol.% of Al
2
O
3
nanoparticle
into the water or EG, an increase of about 40% in comparison with the
pure water and pure EG Nusselt number was recorded.
The Nusselt number increases monotonously with Reynolds
number, but Nu
nf
/Nu
bf
presents different variation tendencies with
Reynolds number for these two nanouids. For the water based
nanouid it is obvious from Fig. 4(A) that Nu
nf
/Nu
w
increases with
Reynolds number and in higher concentrations of nanoparticle the
effect of Reynolds number becomes pronounced. This result is in
Table 4
Physical properties of pure water, pure EG and mixture of waterEG at 40 C.
Physical
properties
Water EG Water 95% Water 90% Water 80%
EG 5% EG 10% EG 20%
(kg/m
3
) 992 1101 995
a
1002 1008
(kg/m.s) 0.00065 0.0095 0.00101
b
0.00165 0.0019
k (W/m C) 0.633 0.256 0.615
b
0.6 0.58
C
p
(J/kg.C) 4174 2382 4157
c
4090 4020
(m
2
/s) 1.510
7
9.810
8
1.4910
7
1.4610
7
1.4310
7
Pr 4.3 93 6.8 11.2 13.1
a
The density of water/EG mixtures have been obtained from [32].
b
The experimental thermal conductivities and viscosities of water/EG mixtures have
been obtained from [33].
c
The heat capacities of water/EG mixtures have been extracted from [34].
Fig. 3. The results for: A) pure water (T
in
=50 C) in comparison with DittusBoelter
correlation [36]. B) Pure EG (T
in
=40 C) in comparison with the Vajjha et al. correlations
[37].
1287 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 12831290
contradiction to the EG based nanouids in which Nu
nf
/Nu
EG
exhibited
irregular trends against Reynolds number, as can be seen in Fig. 4(B).
It was shown that when small amounts of Al
2
O
3
nanoparticles are
added to the base uids, the density and the thermal conductivity
increase and the specic heat decreases slightly while the viscosity
increases more markedly compared to the base uid [1]. These
variations, however, are too small (of about 4%) to explain heat transfer
enhancement of up to 40% gained in this study. Heris et al. [12] have
doneexperiments withAl
2
O
3
nanoparticles inwater under laminar ow
up to turbulence. They found the heat transfer enhancement as high as
40% with Al
2
O
3
particles while the thermal conductivity enhancement
was less than 15%. Many researchers have suggested that in fact
Brownian motion is one of the most important factors in the
enhancement of heat transfer. The presence of nanoparticles and their
random motion within the base uid cause the thickness of thermal
boundary layer to reduce and it has important contribution to such heat
transfer improvement [38]. This random motion of ultra-ne particles
would create a slip velocity between the solid particles and the uid
medium [23]. Xuan and Roetzel [26] also suggested the role of small
perturbations in the temperature and velocity formulation to account
for the Brownian motion.
5.3. Effect of temperature on heat transfer coefcient of nanouids
Fig. 5(A) and (B) compares the nanouid Nusselt numbers at
different inlet temperatures inorder toanalyzetheeffect of temperature
variation on the heat transfer performance of the car radiator. It is clear
that an increase in the uid inlet temperature (in the range of our
experiments) slightly improves the heat transfer performance. Inspect-
ing the results reveals that increasing the inlet temperature of water
based nanouids from35 C to 50 C can enhance Nusselt number up to
16%. For EG based nanouids, the temperature elevation from 45 to
60 C creates maximum enhancement of 7%. This variation in Nusselt
number may be attributed to the effect of temperature on the physical
properties and also to the increased effect of test liquid radiation to the
internal wall of the tubes.
5.4. Heat transfer to water/EG binary mixture nanouids
A conventional uid usually used in the car radiator is the mixture
of water/EG in different concentrations depending on the regional
weather. In order to have more insights to the inuence of
nanoparticle addition in the radiator coolant, three different concen-
trations of water/EGbinary mixtures which include 5, 10, and 20 vol.%
EG were prepared as the base uids. Four different values of Al
2
O
3
nanoparticle (0, 0.05, 0.15, and 0.3 vol.%) were added to each
concentration of water/EG mixtures and nally the effect of ow
rate on the heat transfer performance was studied for each case. All
the obtained experimental data are summarized in Table 5. The results
obtained for pure water and pure EG based nanouids (which were
shown previously) were also presented in this table for more
comfortable comparison of the results. Furthermore, due to the
large variations in the physical properties of the base uids, it is not
possible to imply Nusselt number as a function of Reynolds number.
Reynolds number greatly reduced when EG concentration enhances.
At extreme conditions, Reynolds number changes between 9000 and
23,000 for water based nanouids while it changes between 1200 and
Fig. 4. Variations of dimensionless Nusselt number at different Reynolds numbers as a
function of nanoparticle concentration (T
in
=45 C). A) Water based nanouids. B) EG
based nanouids.
Fig. 5. Effect of inlet temperature on the Nusselt numbers. A) Water based nanouid at
the nanoparticle concentration of 1 vol.%. B) EG based nanouid at the nanoparticle
concentration of 0.7 vol.%.
1288 S.M. Peyghambarzadeh et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 38 (2011) 12831290
2500 for EG based nanouids. It should be mentioned that all the data
in Table 5 have been obtained at the constant liquid inlet temperature
to the radiator namely 45 C. Data in Table 5 obviously indicate that
higher Nusselt numbers have been obtained for the pure water
compared to pure EG at constant ow rate (more than twice). This is
basically due to the sharp differences in the physical properties of the
two pure liquids. For the sake of clarity, some of the important
physical properties of water and EG were compared in Table 2 at the
temperature of 45 C. The Prandtl number (Pr) as an important
parameter affecting the heat transfer coefcient differs greatly in
these two liquids and it can be the main reason for the lower Nusselt
number in EG compared to water. Furthermore, it is obvious from
Table 5 that the addition of EG into water decreases the Nusselt
numbers. It is the reason for mixing of EG with water; water does a
much better job at the cooling of the engine. In all the experimental
data shown in Table 5, it is proven that the addition of nanoparticle to
each base uid enhances the heat transfer coefcient. This effect
manifests itself at water/EG binary mixtures with lower concentra-
tions of EG. Different correlations were introduced for the prediction
of nanouid forced convection heat transfer in the literature up to
now. Xuan and Li [39] suggested two empirical correlations for
laminar and turbulent ow of the nanouids in tube:
Nu = 0:4328 1 + 11:285
0:754
Pe
0:218
_ _
Re
0:333
Pr
0:4
Re b 210013
Nu = 0:0059 1 + 7:6286
0:6886
Pe
0:001
_ _
Re
0:9238
Re b 2100 14
The experimental data obtained in the present investigation have
been compared with these two correlations. Fig. 6(A) and (B)
compare the experimental results for the Nusselt number of Al
2
O
3
/
water and Al
2
O
3
/EG nanouids respectively with the prediction of
Xuan and Li correlations. Very good agreement can be seen in these
two gures. Calculating the absolute average errors reveals that the
prediction error for water based nanouids is 7% and for EG based
nanouids is 12.5%. As can be seen in Fig. 6, Xuan and Li correlations
almost over-predict Nusselt number for these nanouids. The over-
prediction of these empirical correlations has been mentioned before
by other investigators in the case of other nanouids [40].
6. Conclusion
In this paper, the convective heat transfer enhancement of water
and EG based nanouids as the coolants inside at aluminum tubes of
the car radiator has been investigated. Signicant increases of the
total heat transfer rates have been observed with the nanoparticle
addition. A highest Nusselt number enhancement up to 40% was
obtained at the best conditions for both nanouids. The experimental
results have demonstrated that the heat transfer behaviors of the
nanouids were highly depended on the particle concentration and
the ow conditions and weakly dependent on the temperature. Our
results indicate that nanouids have great potential for heat transfer
enhancement and are highly suited to apply in practical heat transfer
processes. This provides promising ways for engineers to develop
highly compact and effective radiators for cars. These higher heat
transfer coefcients obtained by using nanouid instead of water
allowthe working uid in the car radiator to be cooler. The addition of
nanoparticles to the coolant has the potential to improve automotive
and heavy-duty engine cooling rates or equally causes to remove the
engine heat with a reduced-size cooling system. Smaller cooling
systems result in smaller and lighter radiators, which in turn benet
almost every aspect of vehicle performance and lead to increased fuel
economy.
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