Effects of Al2O3–Cu/water hybrid nanofluid on heat transfer and flow characteristics in turbulent regime

Abstract

In this paper, forced convection of a turbulent flow of pure water, Al 2 O 3/water nanofluid and Al 2 O 3– Cu /water hybrid nanofluid (a new advanced nanofluid composited of Cu and Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles) through a uniform heated circular tube is numerically analyzed. This paper examines the effects of these three fluids as the working fluids, a wide range of Reynolds number (10 000 ≤ Re ≤ 10 0000) and also the volume concentration (0% ≤ ϕ ≤ 2%) on heat transfer and hydrodynamic performance. The finite volume discretization method is employed to solve the set of the governing equations. The results indicate that employing hybrid nanofluid improves the heat transfer rate with respect to pure water and nanofluid, yet it reveals an adverse effect on friction factor and appears severely outweighed by pressure drop penalty. However, the average increase of the average Nusselt number (when compared to pure water) in Al 2 O 3– Cu /water hybrid nanofluid is 32.07% and the amount for the average increase of friction factor would be 13.76%.