Numerical study of laminar convective heat transfer of Al₂O₃-H₂O:EG nanofluids

Nanofluids generate considerable interest in increasing the heat transfer performance of a system, specifically as a coolant. A study of Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles in water and ethylene glycol (60:40) mixture is conducted by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to investigate its potential by assuming a single-phase and constant thermophysical properties model. This study aims to analyze its heat transfer enhancement by using a theoretical properties model in several volume concentrations: 0.3%, 0.6%, 1.0%, and 1.5%. A straight tube geometry by neglecting its wall thermal conductivity is used under laminar conditions and constant heat flux and 293 K inlet temperature, compared with various Reynolds numbers. The model is validated using Shah Correlation, resulting 8% maximum deviation. The Einstein theoretical model fails to predict the viscosity properties resulted in more than a 10% deviation from the current experimental findings. Notwithstanding the theoretical prediction, the simulation observed that a 1.5% volume concentration increased higher heat transfer enhancement around 3%.