Comparative Study of Cooling Performance of Automobile Radiator Using Al2O3-Water and Carbon Nanotube-Water Nanofluid

Abstract

In the present study, the forced convective heat transfer performance of two different nanofluids, namely, Al2O3-water and CNT-water has been studied experimentally in an automobile radiator. Four different concentrations of nanofluid in the range of 0.15–1 vol. % were prepared by the additions nanoparticles into the water as base fluid. The coolant flow rate is varied in the range of 2 l/min–5 l/min. Nanocoolants exhibit enormous change in the heat transfer compared with the pure water. The heat transfer performance of CNT-water nanofluid was found to be better than Al2O3-water nanocoolant. Furthermore, the Nusselt number is found to increase with the increase in the nanoparticle concentration and nanofluid velocity.