Heat and Mass Transfer Internal Assesement-1

T.Y. Mech. B4_G1 Oct. 2018

ANALYSIS OF NANOFLUIDS AS A COOLANT

IN CAR RADIATORS
Saurabh Kasar1, Shubham Jathar2, Karunesh Gothivarekar3, Kiran Karkera4, Prof. Abhishek P. S. Bhaduria5
1, B.Tech student, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, KJSCE, Mumbai, India
2, B.Tech student, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, KJSCE, Mumbai, India
3, B.Tech student, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, KJSCE, Mumbai, India
4, B.Tech student, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, KJSCE, Mumbai, India
5, Professor-HMT, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, KJSCE, Mumbai, India

Abstract— The performance of an engine is affected by various systems such as fuel supply system, lubrication system, transmis-
sion system but the cooling system is one of the major parameter among all. Recent trends in nanotechnologies have lead to the
development of nano fluids which has a potential of better heat transfer capacity than conventional coolants. This review paper
focuses on the various research papers to improve automobile radiator efficiency. Heat transfer performance of car radiator is
enhanced by using Nano fluids. An effect of different volumetric concentration of the Nano fluids in heat transfer rate is investi-
gated experimentally.

Keywords- Nano fluids, Car radiator, Heat transfer, Cooling, Nano particles, MWCNT.
——————————  ——————————

1. INTRODUCTION
(SiO2), Zinc oxide(ZnO), Titanium dioxide ( TiO2), alu-

H igh performance cooling is required for better per-

formance of the engines. Most internal combustion engines
minium oxide (Al2O3) are also used.

are fluid cooled either air or liquid cooled in which case a
liquid coolant is made to flow through a heat exchanger
commonly known as radiator. Conventionally water and oil
are use as the coolants in car radiators, but due to their low
thermal conductivity, radiators needs to be made in large
size to get required amount of heat transfer rate. Due to
limited space at the front of the engine, the size of the radi-
ator is restricted and cannot be essentially increased. There-
fore the fluids with higher heat transfer capabilities need to
be incorporated in the system.
The performance of radiator strongly depends upon dif-
ferent parameters like fluid thermal conductivity, Reynolds
number nusselt number prandtl number. Now a days a new
type of coolants are being tested and researches have been
carried out to study the enhanced heat transfer rate of a ra-
diator by using nanofluids. Nanofluids are those fluids
which carry some additional very small sized solid particles
typically of order of nanometer in the base fluid coolants.
Some typical nano particles made up of pure metals are
iron (Fe), Copper (Cu), Gold
(Au), silver (Ag). Nano particles of metal oxides likes cop-
per oxide(CuO), Ferro ferric oxide(Fe3O4),silicon dioxide
2. NEED OF ENHANCEMENT
Automobile engine needs a radiator to dissipate the
heat produced in the operation. The performance of
an engine is affected by various systems such as fuel
supply system, lubrication system, transmission sys-
tem but the cooling system is one of the major param-
eter among all. Coolants with high heat carrying ca-
pacity are required to perform their task in order to
have proper functioning of engine and all systems.
Conventional radiator coolants like water and cooling
oils and ethylene glycol has low thermal conductivity.
Addition of fins on the engine and radiator has al-
ready reached their limits. With the advancements in
nanotechnology, a new type of fluids called
“Nanofluid” has been developed and the researchers
found that these fluids have higher heat transfer ca-
pabilities. Nano fluids are potential heat transfer flu-
ids with enhanced thermo physical properties.
Nanofluids contain many nanoparticles having size in
the range of 2-10 nm. Smaller particle size provides larger
surface area resulting in better heat transfer capabilities.
The added advantage of using this method is that it does
not require any design changes to the existing radiator de-
sign. Such fluids have a high efficiency heat transfer char-
acteristics as compared to conventional fluids as these have

HMT IA-1 2018 B4G1 Page 1

Heat and Mass Transfer Internal Assesement-1
T.Y. Mech B4_G1 Oct. 2018
higher thermal conductivity than other fluids. Nanofluids
are formed by suspending metallic or non-metallic oxide
nanoparticles in traditional heat transfer fluids. This newly
introduced category of cooling fluids containing ultrafine
nanoparticles (1–100 nm) has displayed interesting behav-
iour during experiments including increased thermal con-
ductivity and improved heat transfer coefficient compared
to a pure fluid.
3. LITERATURE SURVEY
Archit Deshpande performed an experiment on
Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT)-water
Nano fluids at different temperatures (500C, 600C,
700C). They prepare MWCNT nanofluid with SDBS
surfactant in 4 batches of 1.5 liters capacity each.
Batches were then subjected to ultrasonic waves to get
homogenous mixture of nanoparticles dispersant in
distilled water. The particle concentration was main-
tained at 0.2% gm/ltr. The thermal capacity was ob-
served to be 19.26 KW at 500C. There was a rise of
53.27% in capacity as temp. Increases by 10. Thus as
the temperature increases, there is an increase in
thermal capacity.
Arjun A. did the thermal analysis on both the
nanofluids and conventional fluids. He used ultrafine
nanoparticles of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) as the
nanofluid and water as the conventional coolant. The
fluid mixture was heated up to 50-600C and then al-
lowed to pass through parallel tubes of the radiator.
Thermal sensors were installed to measure tempera-
ture of inlet/outlet to radiator, tube wall and air in-
let/outlet. Mixture contains 75gm of nanopowder for
1.25 liter of water. The time was found to be about 7-
10 minutes subjected to atmospheric conditions.
Readings obtained when Al2O3 nanofluid is used with
ratio of 1.25litre of water and 125gm of nano powder.
The heat transfer properties of Al2O3 nano fluid were
found to be higher than the conventional coolant wa-
ter.
HMT IA-1 2018 B4G1
Heat exchanger effectiveness of water, €water = 0.49
Heat exchanger effectiveness with nanofluid, €nanofluid= 0.57
Navid Bozorgan This paper is a numerical study of
CuO-water Nano fluid in automotive diesel engine
radiator. Nanoparticles (CuO) with size of 20nm and
volume concentration up to 2% are investigated in a
Chevrolet suburban diesel engine. The local convec-
tive and overall heat transfer co-efficient and pump-
ing power for CuO-water is flow through the flat
tubes with Renf=6000 at different volume concentra-
tion of 0.1 to 2% under turbulent flow at engine speed
of 70km/hr is giving more than that of base fluid for
given condition. The overall heat transfer for CuO-
water at the volume concentration of 0.1-2% gives 122
& 134.27w/m2k respectively. Increase the Reynolds
number with Renf=8000 compared to Renf=6000 is
giving more than 2.3%. The increase of pumping
power 2% CuO-water Nano fluid at Renf=8000 is
compared to Renf=6000 is 61.75%. The decrease in
pumping power of 2% CuO-water Nano fluid at en-
gine speed of 80km/hr is compare to speed of
60km/hr is 16.7%.
The simulation results indicate that the overall heat
transfer coefficient of nanofluid was found to be
higher than that of water alone and therefore the total
heat transfer area of the radiator can be reduced. He
also found out that associated pumping power also
increases which might reduce the efficiency of radia-
tor to some extent.
4. METHODOLOGY
Nanofluids are used along with the carrier fluids
or conventional fluids like water and ethylene glycol.
The concentration of the nano particles in the carrier
fluid can be varied according to the expected heat
transfer rates. The mixture is first heated and then al-
lowed to flow through radiator for the heat to get dis-
Page 2
Heat and Mass Transfer Internal Assesement-1
T.Y. Mech B4_G1 Oct. 2018

sipate in atmosphere. To achieve faster cooling, addi-

tional fins on the radiator tubes are provided along Sr. Nano Base Particle K Heat
with a fan which blows cool air on fins and tubes. no. particle fluid Volume Enhance transfer
Temperatures at various sections are recorded sim- fraction ement enhance
ultaneously and the increase in the heat transfer is ment
then calculated using conventional relations between
1 Al2O3 Water 6.8% - 40%
specific heat, flow rate, temperature gradient etc.
HP cool
2 Al2O3 3.5% 10.41% -
guard
5. RESULTS & CALCULATIONS 3 ZnO Ethylene 5% 26.5% -
Glycol
The selection of nanofluid is of prime importance and 4 CuO Water 0.4% 17% 8%
the problem we faced in selecting such a nanofluid was that Ethylene
5 Cu 0.3% 40% -
the availability of nanopowder which has to be mixed with Glycol
a carrier liquid in order to produce the required nanofuid. 6 Al2O3 Water 0.35% 15% 40%
The simulation results indicate that the overall heat transfer 7 Al2O3 Water 1% 3% 45%
coefficient of nanofluid is greater than that of water alone
and therefore the total heat transfer area of the radiator can
be reduced. However, the considerable increase in associat- 6. CONCLUSION
ed pumping power may impose some limitations on the
efficient use of this type of nanofluid in automotive diesel  Use of nano fluids in the car radiator gives better
engine radiators. Increasing the nanoparticles volume con- heat transfer than using base fluids.
centration, flow rate enhances the overall heat transfer coef-  Heat transfer and nusselt number can be increased
ficient. by increasing the concentration of nanofluids in
 Introduction of MWCNT nanoparticles increase the carrier fluid.
thermal capacity of base fluid. Thermal capacity is  The problem in the use of nanoparticles is that they
directly proportional to the concentration of nano- need to be stabilized. For stabilizing they are coat-
particles. ed with surfactant (steric dispersion) or charged to
 Maximum enhancement in capacity of 32% was at repulse each other in liquid electrostatic dispersion.
500C and at 600C and 700C, there was an increase  Due to high surface energy of nano particles they
of 13% and 18% respectively. tend to agglomerate to decrease their surface ener-
 Heat transfer enhancement of water and ethylene gy. The agglomeration of nano particles causes rap-
glycol with 1% of Al2O3 nanofluid in car radia- id settling which deteriorates the properties of
tor was about 40% compared with base fluids nanofluids.
under same conditions. At Reynolds number  With increase in nano particle loading in the base
of 2000, heat transfer enhancement with 10% fluid, viscosity and density of nano fluids increase
Al2O3 was 94% and for 6% of CuO it was 89%. and therefore the friction factor and the pressure
 Particle volume fraction, particle material, base flu- drop must be increased. Hence, a Nano fluid gener-
id, particle size, temperature are some of the pa- ally requires the greater pumping power than other
rameters which affects the overall thermal capacity fluids.
of radiator.  Many issues like Brownian motion, particle migra-
The governing heat transfer equation of a heat exchanger tion and thermo physical properties with respect to
is Q=mCp(Tin-Tout) where, Q= amount of heat transferred, temperature must be carefully controlled.
m= mass flow rate, Cp= Specific heat of Fluid and Tin and  Need of stability and high production cost hinders
Tout are inlet and outlet temperature of flowing fluid. There the commercialization of Nano fluids.
are two fluids flowing through a heat exchanger namely hot
and cold fluid. The hot fluid transfer heat to the cold fluid
as it flows. The overall heat balance equation for a heat ex- 7. FUTURE SCOPE
changer is Qhot=Qcold i.e. the amount of heat absorbed by
the cold fluid is same as that being liberated by hot fluid. This paper presents an outlook of different additives
Qcold=mcCpc(Tcout - Tcin) where mc= mass flow rate of used in radiator and it is clear that a lot of work has been
cold fluid, Cpc = Specific heat of cold fluid, Tcin, Tcout are done in this field but there is always scope of improvement.
inlet and outlet temperatures of cold fluid respectively. An- From the review presented it is quite evident that by vary-
other thing that determines the heat exchanger performance ing the coolant properties the heat transfer can be enhanced
is the effectiveness of heat exchanger which is defined as The main conclusions from the review are the heat transfer
ratio of actual heat transfer to the maximum possible heat from the radiator depends on various factors like coolant
transfer. inlet temperature, thermal conductivity, mass flow rates and
Effectiveness=Qactual / Qmax air Reynolds number. Addition of different additives such
as Ethylene glycol, propylene glycol affects the radiator
HMT IA-1 2018 B4G1 Page 3
Heat and Mass Transfer Internal Assesement-1
T.Y. Mech B4_G1 Oct. 2018

performance accordingly Ethylene Glycol and Propylene

Glycols are used as antifreeze agents whereas nanoparticles
like Al2O3, CuO, TiO2 increases the heat transfer rate of
the radiator. Glycols are known to have antifreeze proper-
ties but still there is scope of improvement Nano fluids
though increase the heat transfer but also the pumping
power also there is the problem of stability of nanoparticles
in base fluids that makes it difficult to use nano coolants
commercially.
All these problems needed to be addressed in order To
bring Nano fluids in common use. The better heat transfer
capabilities of nano fluids can be further utilized for heat
dissipation in various systems of automobile like transmis-
sion, exhaust, air conditioning etc.

8. REFERENCES

1) Archit Deshpande, Viraj Patil, Rohit Patil, ―Experi-

mental Analysis of Automobile Radiator using MWCNT-
Water Nanofluid‖, (IJERT) ISSN: 2278-0181 Vol. 5 Issue
11, November-2016

2) Arjun. A, Aravind.M.R, Ananthapadmanabhan.C.D,

Karnan P Rayorath, Abhimaleck George.M, Rajiv Var-
ma, ―An experimental Investigation of Nano fluids as cool-
ant in engines‖, (IRJET) Volume: 03 Issue: 02 | Feb-
2016

3) Naman Jinsiwale, Prof. Vishal Achwal,

―Heat Transfer Enhancement in Automobile Radiator using
Nano fluids: A Review‖, (IJETT) Volume-55 Number 2,
January 2018

4) Navid Bozorgan, Komalangan Krishnakumar,

Nariman Bozorgan, ―Numerical Study on Application of
CuO-Water Nanofluid in Automotive Diesel Engine Radia-
tor‖, September 29, 2012

5) Dr.P.T.Saravanakumar, M.Surya, D.Vijay and

G.Santhoshkumar, ―Improving Performance in Engine
Cooling System Using Nano fluids‖, (IRJET) Volume:
04 Issue: 09 | Sep -2017

HMT IA-1 2018 B4G1 Page 4