Abstract:
Thermal Properties of conventional base fluids in heat transfer equipments are poor. By suspending nanometer sized metallic particles in these base fluids, the thermal properties of base fluids can be increased significantly. By using this nanofluids instead of conventional fluids, the heat transfer rate can be increased. An experimental setup was designed and fabricated for the measurement of convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids. Experiments were conducted by varying the flow rates and particle volume concentration in turbulent regime. By analyzing the results it was found that the heat transfer coefficient increases with increase in Reynolds number.As the concentration of nanoparticle increases, the convective heat transfer coefficient first increases and then decreases. This may be due to the settling of nanoparticles at higher concentrations. Dittus-Boelter correlation was modified to suit TiO 2-water nanofluids using the experimental data for a Reynolds number range of 4000 to 10,000.

Keywords: nanofluid, convective heat ransfer