Title: Thermal design analysis of compact heat exchanger using nanofluids

Authors: V. Vasu, K. Rama Krishna, A.C.S. Kumar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal 506 021, India. ' Department of Freshman Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah College of Engineering, Veddeswaram, 522 502, India. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, India

Abstract: Compact heat exchangers have been widely used in various applications in thermal fluid systems including automotive thermal fluid systems. Radiators for engine cooling systems, evaporators and condensers for HVAC systems, oil coolers and inter coolers are typical examples that can be found in ground vehicles. Recent development of nanotechnology brings out a new heat transfer coolant called |nanofluids|. These fluids exhibit larger thermal properties than conventional coolants (water, ethylene glycol, engine oil etc.) due to the presence of suspended nanosized particles in them such as Al₂O₃, Cu, CuO, TiO₂ etc. In this paper, a theoretical analysis was carried with the ε-NTU rating method by using Al₂O₃ + H₂O nanofluid as coolant on flat tube plain fin compact heat exchanger and different characteristics are graphically presented.

Keywords: automobile radiators; compact heat exchangers; ε-NTU method; nanofluids; nanotechnology; thermal design; engine cooling; evaporators; condensers; HVAC; oil coolers; inter coolers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNM.2008.018949

International Journal of Nanomanufacturing, 2008 Vol.2 No.3, pp.271 - 288

Published online: 25 Jun 2008 *

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