Effect of nanoparticle diameter on the forced convective heat transfer of nanofluid (water + Al2O3) in the fully developed laminar region

Nanofluid is a suspension of nanoparticles (solid particles with diameters below 100 nm) in a conventional base fluid with significantly improved heat transfer characteristics compared to the original fluid. The heat transfer coefficient is a quantitative characteristic of the convective heat transfer. The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of the nanoparticle size (diameter) on the heat transfer coefficient of forced convective heat transfer of nanofluid in the fully developed laminar region of a horizontal tube. Using thermal conductivity model which is a function of the nanoparticle size, flow of a nanofluid (water + Al2O3) in a circular tube submitted to a constant wall temperature is numerically investigated with two particle sizes of 11 nm and 47 nm. The calculated results show that the nanoparticle size does not significantly affect the heat transfer coefficient, however, the heat transfer coefficient decreases as the particle size increases.

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