International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

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International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmt

An experimental investigation on heat transfer characteristics of graphite- T

SiO2/water hybrid nanofluid flow in horizontal tube with various quad-
channel twisted tape inserts
⁎
Ahmet Selim Dalkılıça, , Osman Alperen Türka, Hatice Mercanb, Santiphap Nakkaewc,
Somchai Wongwisesc
a
Heat and Thermodynamics Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University (YTU), Yildiz, Besiktas,
Istanbul 34349, Turkey
b
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Yildiz Technical University (YTU), Yildiz, Besiktas, Istanbul 34349, Turkey
c
Fluid Mechanics, Thermal Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Techonology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangmod, Bangkok 10140, Thailand

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Turbulent heat transfer characteristics of Graphite-SiO2/Water hybrid nanofluid flow in a horizontal smooth
Hybrid nanofluid tube with and without quad-channel twisted tape (QCTT) inserts is investigated experimentally. The hybrid
Twisted tape insert nanofluid is obtained using two different nanoparticles: Siliciumdioxid (60%) and Graphite (40%) with pure
Friction factor water as base fluid. Experiments are conducted for two different volume concentrations, 0.5% and 1%, re-
spectively. The length of quad-channel twist tape inserts are between 0 and 42 cm with constant twist ratios of 5.
The Reynolds number is varied from 3400 to 11,000. According to the results, Nusselt number of the case with
hybrid nanofluid increased with increasing mass flow rate and volume concentration. Also, heat transfer coef-
ficient increased with increasing length of twisted tape insert. Moreover, friction factor increases with increasing
volume concentration for increasing Reynolds number whereas and friction factor increases with increasing the
length of tape inserts. Pressure drop increases with increasing mass flow rate and increasing volume con-
centration. Finally, the regression equations are found to be well-matched with the experimental data within the
deviation band of ± 5% for Nusselt number and ± 10% for friction factor, respectively.

1. Introduction
The thermal capacity of working fluids used in heat exchangers like
hybrid nanoparticle mixtures of water, propylene glycol, ethylene
glycol and engine oil are enhanced, thus the size of heat exchangers
could be reduced. There are significant amount of studies present in the
literature about preparation and specifications of hybrid nanofluids and
their influences on heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop.
Some of the selected publications of the authors regarding with mea-
suring thermal properties of nanofluid [1–4] and applications of na-
nofluid [5–8] can be found in the literature.
The practical works in open sources investigating the influences of
dissimilar kinds of nanoparticles accompanied with the concentration,
flow type and the design of the heat exchangers on the heat transfer
performance and friction factor is summarized in this part. Sundar et al.
[9] studied experimentally the heat transfer and friction factor char-
acteristics of a turbulent MWCNT-Fe3O4/water hybrid nanofluid flow in
a round pipe for constant heat flux. The experiments are conducted for
changing Reynolds number (3000 < Re < 22,000) and two different
particle loadings (0.1% and 0.3%) of the hybrid nanofluid. They
showed that comparing the results with pure water, 31.1% increase in
Nusselt number is observed for 0.3% particle loading with Re = 22,000,
where the pumping power increased by 18% as a consequence.
Duangthongsuk and Wongwises [10] examined the heat transfer coef-
ficient and friction factor in a counter flow heat exchanger with hor-
izontal double pipe for 0.2 vol% TiO2-water nanofluid. The heat
transfer enhancement is observed to be around 6–11% with little pen-
alty in pressure drop in comparison to the water.
The properties of nanofluids are investigated in a series of studies
under different thermal loads. Ho et al. [11], Khoshvaght-Aliabadi and
Eskandari [12] tabulated the density, dynamic viscosity, specific heat
capacity and thermal conductivity of the nanofluids for changing vo-
lumetric concentrations and mass flow fractions. Ho et al. used Al2O3
nanofluid/water blend whereas Khoshvaght-Aliabadi and Eskandari

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dalkilic@yildiz.edu.tr (A.S. Dalkılıç).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2019.05.013

Available online 06 June 2019

0735-1933/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al.
Nomenclature
A surface area of test section (m2)
cp specific heat at constant section (J/kgK)
Di inside diameter of tube (m)
d diameter of tube (m)
f friction factor
h heat transfer coefficient (W/m2K)
I electric current (A)
k thermal conductivity (W/mK)
l length of twisted tape insert (m)
L tube length of the experimental section (m)
m mass, kg
ṁ mass flow rate (kg/s)
Nu Nusselt number
Pr Prandtl number
SE Standard error
Q heat transfer rate (W)
QCTT quad-channel twisted tape
Re Reynold number
R2 coefficient of determination
T temperature (°C)
u velocity (m/s)
V electric voltage (V)
used Cu-water blend. Kim et al. [13] examined the influences of alu-
mina and amorphous carbonic nanoparticles for different volume con-
centrations under constant heat flux on the convective heat transfer in a
circular straight tube. The influence of changing inlet temperature on
the efficiency index is investigated for 3800 < Re < 12,000, and vo-
lumetric concentrations of 0.5, 1 and 2% of SiO2/water nanofluid
flowing in a horizontal round pipe is investigated experimentally by
Jumpholkul et al. [14]. The consequences indicated that the highest
value of the efficiency index was reached at Reynolds number higher
than 9000, the volume concentration of nanofluid 2%, and inlet tem-
perature of 35 °C.
In the experimental study, Azmi et al. [15] compared the influence
of different twist ratio of twisted tape inserts on the heat transfer
coefficient and friction factor of constant TiO2/water nanofluid
(1%–3% concentration at 30 °C) flow in a pipe. A substantial augmen-
tation of 23.2% in the heat transfer coefficients is observed at 1% vol.
TiO2. Results showed that the heat transfer coefficient increased with
decrease in twist ratio for both pure water and nanofluid cases.
An experimental study to investigate heat transfer and friction
factor characteristics of a laminar flow in round pipe with twisted tape
inserts with various thicknesses is performed by Esmaeilzadeh et al.
[16], using γ-Al2O3/water nanofluid. The heat flux is kept constant,
volumetric concentrations are chosen as 0.5% and 1%, Reynolds
number is from 150 to 1600 and the tape thicknesses are 0.5 mm, 1 mm
and 2 mm with constant twist ratio of 3.21. The increasing thickness of
the tape increased both the convective heat transfer coefficient and the
friction factor. The increased concentration also enhanced the thermal
performance.
In the study of Maddah et al. [17], the influence of twist geometrical
progression ratio on Nusselt number and friction coefficient is in-
vestigated experimentally in a horizontal double tube heat exchanger
with twisted tapes and Al2O3 nanofluid. It is reported that tape with the
reduced twist ratio, heat transfer coefficient increased by 12% to 52%
and friction factor increased by 5% to 28% compared to constant twist
ratio. The increased twist ratio weakened both heat transfer and friction
factor by 0.6 to 0.92 and 0.75 to 0.95, respectively. Man et al. [18]
examined experimentally the influence of alternating twist of inserted
tape and compared the results with typical twisted tape inserts on the
thermal performance of dual type heat exchangers where water is the
2
International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13
Greek symbols
α thermal diffusivity (m2/s)
ε tube roughness (m)
μ dynamic viscosity (kg/ms)
φ volume concentration (%)
ρ density (kg/m2)
ΔP pressure drop (Pa)
Subscripts
ave. average
bf base fluid
Corr Correlation
Exp Experiment
hnf hybrid nanofluid
in inlet
np nanoparticle
out outlet
ss stainless steel
sup supply
wi inner wall
wo outer wall
working fluid and the flow is turbulent. According to their results, the
alternation of the twist enhanced the thermal performance and the
maximum performance evaluation criteria value reached to 1.42.
In a series of experimental studies Ravi Kumar et al. [19–20] studied
the effect of Reynolds number, volumetric concentration of Fe3O4/
water nanofluids and twisted tape insert ratio H/D on the Nusselt
number and friction factor for different types of heat exchangers. In the
first study, Ravi Kumar et al. [19] investigated experimentally the U
bend heat exchangers with Fe3O4/water nanofluids and twisted tape
inserts for 16,000 < Re < 32,000, particle volume concentration be-
tween 0.005% and 0.006% and twisted tape inserts of H/D = 10, 15
and 20. It is reported that for the highest Reynolds number and volu-
metric concentration the Nusselt number increased to 38.75% with the
lowest tape insert ratio compared to no insert and pure water case. In
the second study [20], the parameter range is enlarged and optimiza-
tion study is carried out to maximize the Nusselt number. According to
their outputs, Nusselt number increased even further for lower H/D
ratio. For H/D = 5, it is 51.88% higher compared to no insert and pure
water case.
The effect of insert tapes with different overlapped twist ratio on
heat transfer performance is examined experimentally by Eiamsa-ard
et al. [21], for dissimilar volume concentrations of TiO2/water nano-
fluid and 5400 < Re < 15,200. The results showed that the de-
creasing twist ratio and increasing volume concentration enhanced the
convection heat transfer and increased the Nusselt number. All the
aforementioned experimental studies introduced empirical relations for
corresponding Nusselt number and friction factor and reported to fit the
experimental measurements within error bands in the range of 8–10%.
In the literature, there is a significant amount of study present in-
vestigating the combined effect of twisted tape inserts and nanofluids;
however there are limited studies focusing on the geometrical proper-
ties and materials of tape inserts. In this study, a state of art quad-
channel twisted tape insert is designed and three different lengths are
printed by a 3-D printer from polylactic acid (PLA). Besides, there are
many studies related with graphite and SiO2 in the literature, but this
study focuses on the results concerning their hybrid form in order to
show their effect heat transfer and pressure drop experimentally. So,
this work should be considered as a continuation one on the authors'
previous works of determination of physical properties of hybrid
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

nanofluids. Graphite and SiO2 particles are determined as:

Additionally, two different volume concentration of Graphite-SiO2/
m m
Water hybrid nanofluid is evaluated as an operating fluid ⎡ ⎛ np1 ⎞ + ⎛ np2 ⎞ ⎤
⎢ ρnp1 ρnp2 ⎥
(Siliciumdioxid 60%, Graphite 40%). The combined effects of the φ × 100 = ⎢ ⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠
m m m
⎥
aforementioned factors on heat transfer and pressure drop character- ⎢ ⎛ np1 ⎞ + ⎛ np2 ⎞ + ⎛ bf ⎞ ⎥
ρnp1 ρnp2 ρbf
istic under turbulent flow condition is examined experimentally. ⎣⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ⎠⎦ (1)
Alteration of various important parameters such heat transfer coeffi- The density of the hybrid nanofluid is determined as:
cient, Nusselt number, friction factor and pressure drop with Reynolds
number, mass flow rate according to varied volume concentrations and ρnf = φnp1 ρnp1 + φnp2 ρnp2 + (1 − φnp1 − φnp2 ) ρbf (2)
twisted tape insert lengths are investigated and the outputs are found to
where φnp1 and φnp2 are the volume concentrations of each nano-
be compatible with the observations available in the literature. Finally,
particles [22].
regression equations for the Nusselt number and friction factors are
The specific heat of the hybrid nanofluid is determined by means of
derived using the measured data.
Eq. (3):

2. Experimental setup ρhn ∗ cp, nf = φnp1 ρnp1 cp, np1 + φnp2 ρnp2 cp, np2 + (1 − φnp1 ρnp1 − φnp2 ρnp2 ) cp, bf
(3)
In the current work, Graphite-SiO2/Water hybrid nanofluid fluid is
arranged from 40% Graphite and 60% SiO2 nanoparticles with two The viscosity of SiO2-Graphite/Water hybrid nanofluid is de-
dissimilar volume concentrations of 0.5% and 1%. In addition, hybrid termined by means of Eq. (4) developed by Dalkılıç et al. [24]:
nanofluid concentrations were chosen until 1% due to the fact that μnf mnp1 ⎞
−0.028935

higher than selected proportion of Graphite and SiO2 particles caused = 1.00527 × (T 0.00035) × (1 + φ)9.36265 × ⎜⎛ ⎟
μbf m
⎝ np2 ⎠ (4)
sedimentation after some time. Also, particles of Graphite have higher
density than particle of SiO2. It means that Graphite particles may cause where T is average temperature, φ is the volume concentration and m is
more sedimentation than SiO2 particles so that proportion of Graphite mass in Eq. (4).
particles was selected lower than SiO2 particles in this study. The thermal conductivity of the hybrid nanofluid is evaluated using
Additionally, the nanoparticles and base fluids weights are mea- the correlation available in the literature [23].
sured using precision scales throughout the study. To obtain sufficiently
0.022254808
homogeneous blends, each hybrid fluid mixture is prepared using the knf mnp2 ⎞
= 0.852870218 × (T 0.052797513) × (1 + φ)6.591412917 × ⎛⎜ ⎟
ultrasonic vibration bath for 2 h. The material properties such as mean kbf ⎝ mnp1 ⎠
diameter, density, thermal conductivity, and specific heat of the na-
(5)
noparticles used in the hybrid nanofluids are shown in Table 1.
Schematic representation of the setup is illustrated in Fig. 1. It
contains of a plain test tube made of stainless steel type 304 with a 3.2. Calculation of heat transfer coefficient
length of 2 m, inner diameter of 0.007 m and outer diameter of
0.0095 m. The ultrasonic vibration bath is used both as a water storing The power supplied to the system from the electric heater is:
tank with a capacity of 6 l and mixer to prevent sedimentation of the Qsup = IV (6)
hybrid nanofluid during experiments. The DC power supply is eval-
uated to provide constant heat flux on the pipe wall; the power is where Qsup is the supplied electrical power, I is the electrical current,
controlled using a voltmeter. The chiller's evaporator side is used to and V is the electrical voltage. The rate of heat transferred from the
obtain stable inlet temperature of hybrid nanofluid. The circulation of hybrid nanofluid due to temperature difference between the tube inlet
the working fluid is maintained by a magnetic gear pump. The wall and outlet sections is:
temperature is measured using 7 T-type thermocouples, they are placed
Qnf = ṁ nf c pnf (Tout − Tin )nf (7)
on the surface of the tube wall with a spacing of 20 cm. The inlet and
outlet temperatures of the hybrid nanofluid is read using two PT100 where Qnf is the heat transfer rate and mnf is the mass flow of hybrid
probes. The heat loss from the tube surface is minimized by fiberglass nanofluids. The mean amount of heat transfer can be expressed as:
cloth and rubber insulation. The flow rate is measured using weighted
average method; each flow rate is measured in 60 s using a certain Qsup + Qnf
Qave =
volume. A differential pressure transmitter is evaluated to determine 2 (8)
the pressure drop between the inlet and outlet of the test section. The where Qave is the mean heat transfer amount between the electric heater
measured data is recorded for 10 min using a data logger after the and the hybrid nanofluids.
stable regime is achieved. The calculated uncertainties of some sig- The heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number and Reynolds number
nificant parameters due to instrumentation are tabulated in Table 2. are determined for the hybrid nanofluids from Eqs. (9) and (10), re-
Due to the difficulties in the production of QCTT inserts with known spectively:
manufacturing methods, the polylactic acid (PLA) quad-channel twisted
tapes (QCTT) are printed using a 3-D printer using PLA filaments and Qave
hnf =
manufactured at 3 different lengths of 14 cm, 28 cm and 42 cm, and Awi (Twi − Tnf ) (9)
with constant twist ratio of 5 as shown in Fig. 2a. The QCTT inserts
were placed inside the test tube and the front view of the QCTT insert is Table 1
shown in Fig. 2b. The geometrical properties of QCTT inserts are ta- Material properties of Graphite and SiO2 nanoparticles used in this study.
bulated in Table 3. Mean diameter of Density Thermal Specific heat
particle conductivity
3. Data reduction
[nm] [kg/m3] [W/mK] [J/kgK]
3.1. Thermal-specifications of nanofluid
SiO2 7 2200 1.40 765
Graphite 6–10 2620 25 720
The volume concentration of the hybrid nanofluid and proportion of

3
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

Fig. 1. The schematic representation of the experimental setup.

Table 2
The calculated uncertainties of the parameters due to in-
strumentation.
Parameter Uncertainty

Temperature (°C) ± 0.1

Pressure drop (Pa) ±7
Mass flow rate (kg/s) ± 0.0035
Electric power (W) ± 7.1
Nusselt number ± 8.6%
Friction factor ± 0.9%

hnf Di
Nunf =
knf (10)

ρnf unf L
Renf =
μnf (11)
where μnf is the velocity of the hybrid nanofluids in the circular tube
obtained from measured flow rate, and L is the length of circular tube.
The outer wall temperature (Two) is measured using 7 thermo-
couples placed on the outer wall of the circular tube. The corresponding
inner wall temperature (Twi) values are approximated using the outer
wall temperatures with the following relation:

Twi = Two −
( )r
Qave ln ro
i

2πLkss
where ro and ri are outer and inner diameter of the test tube, respec-
tively, and kss = 14.4 W/mK is the thermal conductivity of stainless
steel type 304 (Table 4).
4. Results and discussion
Nanofluids are significant since it is possible for them to be eval-
uated in many applications concerning with heat transfer in industrial
(12) Fig. 2. QCTTs with three different tape length (cm): 14, 28 and 42, respectively
(a); the cross-section of the tapes (b).
cooling, smart fluids, nuclear reactors, extraction of geothermal power
and other energy sources, automotive, biomedical and electronic ap-
plications, and further applications such as in detergency. Colloids have
been used in the biomedical field extensively. Nanofluids have also
been confirmed for the development of smart fluids. The applications
can have problems of nanoparticle agglomeration, settling, and erosion

4
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

Table 3 use in biomedical engineering and the biosciences.

Specifications of quad-channel twisted tape (QCTT) inserts. Addition of turbulators into the tubes and channels is one of the
Number of channel 4 promising passive heat transfer increase methods by reason of their
Length of QCTT (cm) 14, 28 and 42 benefits of easy production and low maintenance. Generally, the act of
Thickness (mm) 1 turbulators intensely rely on their shapes such as coil wire, brush, mesh,
Twist ratio (H/D) 5 strip, and twisted tape inserts in order to augment heat transfer effi-
Material PLA
ciency for heat exchangers. Twisted tapes are usually suggested for low
Re conditions in square tubes causing high pressure drops. They also
Table 4
have high potency in conventional heat exchangers of automobile, re-
Operating conditions of the experiments. frigerators, solar collector, heat engine, air conditions, thermal power
plant, electronic cooling, milk plant, chemical process industries etc. for
Inlet temperature (°C) 25
recent years.
Mean heat flux (W/m2) 5457
Mass flow rate (kg/s) 0.020, 0.025, 0.030, 0.035, 0.040, 0.045, 0.050 In this study, effect of the use of nanofluid and twisted tape insert on
the heat transfer characteristics has been investigated experimentally.
Same cases include water/nanofluid as base fluids with and without
related with the synthesis and stability issues. Particle size, size dis- twisted tape insert in order to determine combined effect of passive
tribution, shape and clustering are the main factors for the selection of heat transfer methods on convective heat coefficient and pressure drop.
the particles in experimental works. The use of nanofluids in various
applications is supposed to be common in the near future especially in

100

Present study
Dittus-Boelter [25 ]
80 Sleicher-Rouse [26]
Gnielinski [27]
Nu

60

40
Base fluid (water)

Smooth tube without twisted tape insert

20
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000

Re a)

100

Present study 0.5 Vol.%

Pak and Cho [28]
Xuan and Li [30]
80 Duangthongsuk and Wongwises [29]
Nu

60

40

Smooth Tube without twisted tape insert

Hybrit nanofluid Graphite - SiO 2 /water
20
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000

Re b)
Fig. 3. Validation of the experiments with Nusselt correlations from the literature for water (a), and nanofluid (b) flows in a smooth tube without twisted tape inserts.

5
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

4.1. Verification of the experimental outputs

So as to verify the accuracy of the experimental results, a compar-

ison study is carried out between the measured data evaluated from the
present work and different proven correlations from the open sources
for Nusselt number and friction factor.
Firstly, the validation of the Nusselt number for smooth tube-pure
water case is carried out in Fig. 3a. The well-known correlations from
the literature (Dittus and Boelter [25], Sleicher and Rouse [26], Gnie-
linski [27], see the Eqs. (13), (14) and (15) below, respectively) com-
pared with the experimental results from the present study [25–27].
Nu = 0.023Re 0.8Pr 0.4 (13)

Nu = 5 + 0.015Re aPr b, a = 0.88 − 0.24/(4 + Pr ), and b

= 1/3 + 0.5e−0.6 Pr (14)

(f /8)(Re −1000) Pr
Nu =
1 + 12.7(f /8)0.5 (Pr 2/3 − 1)
Fig. 4. Comparison of experimental data with regression equations for Nusselt f = (1.58 ln (Re ) − 3.82)−2 , 2300 < Re < 106, 0.5 < Pr < 2000 (15)
number.
For increasing Reynolds number, the corresponding Nusselt number
values showed a good fit with the equations in the open sources as
shown in Fig. 3a. Both trends of the present study and values of Nusselt

0.08

Present study
Blasius [38]
0.06 Filonenko [31]
Petukhov [33]

0.04
f

0.02

Water with smooth tube without twisted tape insert

0.00
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000

Re a)
0.08

0.5 vol. % measured data

0.5 vol. % by Sundar et al. [34]
0.06

0.04
f

0.02
Working fluid: Graphite-SiO2 / water
Twisted tape: Smooth tube

0.00
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000

Re b)

Fig. 5. Validation of the experiments with friction factor correlations from the literature for water (a), and nanofluid (b) flows in a smooth tube.

6
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

f = (1.82 log Re −1.64)−2 (22)

Fig. 5a shows the comparison of friction factors above, and results

with a good agreement as its evaluation with these well-known above
correlations in the literature. Values and trend lines have a high com-
patibility among them for pure water flow in the smooth tube without
tape inserts in this figure.
The friction factors in Fig. 5b for Graphite-SiO2/Water hybrid na-
nofluid with 0.5 vol% are compared with the equation proposed by
Sundar et al. [34] where the working fluid is Fe3O4 magnetic nanofluid
with 0.5 vol%. As a result of the comparison shown in this figure, a
good agreement on the trend lines is observed with the correlation of
Sundar et al. [33]. The values have some deviation between each other
due to different operating conditions of Sundar et al. [34].

f = 0.3491 Re−0.25 (1.0 + φ)0.1517

3000 < Re < 22000, 3.72 < Pr < 6.50, 0 < φ < 0.6% (23)

Fig. 6. Comparison of experimental data with regression equations for friction 4.2. Evaluation of convective heat transfer coefficient
factor.
In this section, the influence of volume concentration of hybrid
nanofluid about heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number are pre-
number have reasonable appearance on this figure. Gnielinski's equa-
sented. The inlet temperature is set to 25 °C. Graphite-SiO2/Water hy-
tion [27] has the most compatible one with the experiments according
brid nanofluids is used and two different volumetric concentrations are
to this figure.
studied as 0.5% and 1%. Additionally, three different lengths (14 cm,
Secondly, the experimental data for Graphite-SiO2/Water hybrid
28 cm and 42 cm) of QCTT inserts are investigated with a constant twist
nanofluid with 0.5% volume concentration for smooth tube without
ratio of 5.
twisted tape insert in Fig. 3b is compared with the available equations
The comparison of heat transfer coefficients of pure water and hy-
in the literature, where the correlations are derived for Al2O3-TiO2
brid nanofluid blends, calculated by Eq. (9), for two different volume
hybrid nanoparticles (Pak and Cho [28]), for TiO2 nanofluid
concentrations are given in Fig. 7a for increasing mass flow rates. Ac-
(Duangthongsuk and Wongwises [29]) and for Cu nanofluid (Xuan and
cording to outputs, increasing mass flow rate increased the heat transfer
Li [30]). These correlations for Nusselt numbers are given as follows
coefficient for all three cases; pure water, 0.5% and 1% volume con-
[28–30]:
centration hybrid nanofluids. For lower mass flow rates
Nu = 0.021Re 0.8Pr 0.5 (16) (0.02–0.025 kg/s), the heat transfer coefficient does not show sig-
nificant change with addition of nanoparticles as well as increasing in
10 4 < Re < 105, 6.54 < Pr < 12.23, 0 < φ < 3.0%
volume concentration. For increasing flow rates (0.03, 0.035 and
Nu = 0.074Re 0.707Pr 0.385 φ0.074 0.040 kg/s) with addition of hybrid nanoparticles, the heat transfer
3000 < Re < 18000, 0 < φ < 2.0% (17) coefficient is increased clearly. It seems that when mass flow rate in-
creases, and then the heat transfer coefficient increases, because in-
Nu = 0.059(1 + 7.628φ0.6886Ped 0.001) Renf 0.9238Prnf 0.4 (18) creasing of mass flow rate affects to increasing of turbulence in flow.
The difference between pure water and 1% volume concentrations for
In Fig. 3b, the results are found to be compatible with those ob-
heat transfer coefficient is around 15% in Fig. 7a. There is a significant
tained by the correlations above and show a similar trend for the
relationship between heat transfer and thermal conductivity. When
Nusselt number values for increasing Reynolds numbers although they
concentration of hybrid nanofluid increases, the thermal conductivity
have derived for different nanofluids with operating conditions. For low
of working fluid also increases causing augmentation in heat transfer
Reynolds numbers around transition region, the results have more well-
rate. When the flow rates increase further (0.045 and 0.050 kg/s), the
matched with Duangthongsuk and Wongwises [29], on the other hand,
increased volume concentration of hybrid nanoparticles enhanced the
they have more agreement with those obtained from Pak and Cho [28].
heat transfer coefficient significantly. For this situation, the difference
This figure also depicts the necessity of new correlations for hybrid
between pure water and 1% volume concentrations for heat transfer
nanofluids in the literature.
coefficient is around 21%. Similarly, the effect of nanoparticles on
A similar validation study in Fig. 5 is carried out for friction factor
Nusselt number for increasing Reynolds number is shown in Fig. 7b for
values, as well. The friction factor values for the smooth tube-pure
smooth tube case without tape insert. For increasing volume con-
water case from the present study is evaluated using Eq. (19) which
centration the Nusselt number, calculated by Eq. (10), increases with
includes measured pressure drop value. For comparison, the well-
increasing Reynolds number as expected. Moreover, Eq. (10) includes
known correlations from the literature (Petukhov [31], Blasius [32] and
the error possibility as a result of the use of empirical correlation of
Filonenko [33], see the Eqs. (20), (21) and (22), respectively) are used
thermal conductivity for different hybrid nanofluids obtained by Eq.
[31–33].
(5).
ΔP In Fig. 8a, the combined influence of volume concentration of hy-
f=
( )( )
L
D
ρν 2
2 (19)
brid nanoparticles and QCTT insert having 14 cm length on heat
transfer coefficient is shown. For low mass flow rate values (0.02 kg/s),
the influence of tape insert and increase of volume concentration does
f= (0.790 ln Re −1.64)−2
not affect the heat transfer coefficient significantly. With increasing
3000 < Re < 106 (20)
mass flow rates, the difference in heat transfer coefficients between
f= 0.316Re−0.25 (21) smooth tube with pure water case and 1% volume concentration with
tape insert case becomes more significant. The difference between
3000 < Re < 105 smooth tube with pure water and 1% volume concentrations with tape

7
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

9000
Water
8000 0.5 vol. %
1 vol. %

7000

h (W/m K)
6000
2

5000

4000

3000
Smooth tube without twisted tape insert

2000
0.015 0.020 0.025 0.030 0.035 0.040 0.045 0.050 0.055

m (kg/s) a)
120

Water
100 Hybrit Nanofluid 0.5 vol. %
Hybrit Nanofluid 1 vol. %

80
Nu

60

40

20

Smooth Tube without twisted tape

0
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000

Re b)

Fig. 7. Heat transfer coefficient vs mass flow rate (a), and Nusselt number vs Reynolds number (b) for water and hybrid nanofluids in smooth tube without twisted
tape.

insert for heat transfer coefficient is around 26% in this figure. Besides,
Fig. 8a shows a sample of the passive heat transfer enhancement with
twisted tape inserts with use of hybrid nanofluid. The effect of the use
of nanofluid on pressure drop is very minor considering its concentra-
tion, but it has a significant effect on heat transfer. In addition, heat
transfer rate is observed to be enhanced with the use of twisted tape
with nanofluid. According to the results, it is showed that the use of
twisted tape insert with nanofluid flow can be evaluated for passive
heat transfer enhancement.
In Fig. 8b, the influence of the length of the QCTT insert on heat
transfer coefficient is shown for increasing mass flow rates for 1% vo-
lume concentration of hybrid nanofluid. At low flow rates the effect of
length of tape insert seems negligible. At moderate flow rate values
(0.025, 0.03, 0.035 kg/s), the heat transfer coefficient value is higher
for the tape length of 28 cm case and the heat transfer coefficient shows
mild change between the cases. For higher mass flow rates (0.04, 0.045,
0.05 kg/s) a more regular alignment for the heat transfer coefficient
values is observed. The lowest heat transfer coefficient is observed for
smooth tube in comparison to others, and as the length of the tape
insert increases, the heat transfer coefficient increases in this figure as
well, as expected. This is because of the fact that the use of twisted tape
insert increases heat transfer coefficient enhancing to turbulent in fluid
flow.
The effect of addition and volume concentration of hybrid nano-
particles on Nusselt number for increasing Reynolds number is shown
in Fig. 9a for 28 cm QCTT insert. For low Reynolds numbers
(3500 < Re < 4000), the effect of hybrid nanoparticle addition is not
significant. For moderate Reynolds numbers (4500 < Re < 7000), the
volume concentration with 1% has the highest Nusselt number, how-
ever the effect is not significant still (the maximum difference is < 6%).
For higher Reynolds numbers (7500 < Re < 10,000), a more regular
alignment for the Nusselt numbers is observed. The lowest Nusselt
number is observed for smooth tube with pure water, and as the volume
concentration increases the Nusselt number increases as well, as ex-
pected in this Figure. For hybrid nanofluid with 0.5% volume con-
centration, the effect of length of the QCTT insert on Nusselt number for
increasing Reynolds number is shown in Fig. 9b. For low Reynolds
numbers (3500 < Re < 4000), the effect of tape inserts on Nusselt

8
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

9000

Water with Smooth Tube

8000
Water with twisted tape
0.5 vol. % with twisted Tape
7000 1 vol. % with twisted Tape

h (W/m K)
6000
2

5000

4000

3000
Quad-channel twisted tape lenght: 14 cm

2000
0.015 0.020 0.025 0.030 0.035 0.040 0.045 0.050 0.055

m (kg/s) a)

10000
Smooth tube
9000 14 cm
28 cm
8000 42 cm

7000
h (W/m K)
2

6000

5000

4000

3000
Hybrit nanofluid 1 vol. %

2000
0.015 0.020 0.025 0.030 0.035 0.040 0.045 0.050 0.055

m (kg/s) b)

Fig. 8. Heat transfer coefficient vs mass flow rate for various water and the hybrid nanofluid volume concentrations with 14 cm quad-channel twisted tape insert (a),
and various insert lengths with 1% volume concentration of Graphite-SiO2/Water hybrid nanofluid (b).

number is not significant. For moderate Reynolds numbers
(4500 < Re < 7000), the inserts with 28 cm has the highest Nusselt
number, however the effect is not significant still (the maximum dif-
ference is < 10%). For higher Reynolds numbers (7500 < Re <
10,000), a more regular alignment for the Nusselt numbers is observed.
The lowest Nusselt number is observed for smooth tube and as the
length of the tape insert increases the Nusselt number increases as well,
expectedly.
The effect of addition and increasing volume concentration of hy-
brid nanoparticles on friction factor, obtained from Eq. (19), for in-
creasing Reynolds number is shown in Fig. 10a. For increasing Reynolds
number, the friction factor decreased and reached a plateau after
Re > 8500. In all cases the friction factor is the smallest in the pure
water case whereas it increases with volume concentration as expected.
The effect of increasing Reynolds number (3400 < Re < 9500) on
friction factor for the length of the twisted tape inserts (smooth, 14 cm,
28 cm and 42 cm) are illustrated in Fig. 10b. When the length of twisted
tape insert increases, pressure drop and friction factor increases due to
the larger contact surface caused by the reduced free flow area. For
smooth tube, the friction factor unchanges significantly with increasing
Reynolds number, as expected. However with tape inserts the friction
factor decreased with increasing Reynolds number and for the tape
insert length of 42 cm with increasing Reynolds number the friction
factor decreased about 23% between lowest and highest Reynolds
number cases.
The pressure drop in Fig. 11a is investigated for increasing mass
flow rate and volume concentration of hybrid nanoparticles. As illu-
strated in this figure, for low mass flow rate values the pressure drop
value does not show significant change with hybrid nanoparticle ad-
dition, but for higher mass flow rates the higher volume concentration
ends up with highest pressure drop value. The comparison of pressure
drop for increasing tape insert lengths for increasing mass flow rates are
given in Fig. 11b. The pressure drop increases with increasing mass
flow rates for every case, and the pressure drop becomes distinct for
increasing insert length.

9
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

120

Water with smooth tube

Water with twisted tape
100 0.5 vol. % with twisted tape
1 vol. % with twisted tape

80

Nu 60

40

20

Quad channel twisted tape length: 28 cm

0
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000

Re a)
120

Smooth tube
14 cm twisted tape
100
28 cm twisted tape
42 cm twisted tape
80
Nu

60

40

20
Working fluid: Hybrit nanofluid 0.5 vol. %
Hybrid nanofluid 0.5 vol. %
0
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000

Re b)
Fig. 9. Nusselt number vs Reynolds number for various water and the hybrid nanofluid volume concentrations with 28 cm quad-channel twisted tape insert (a), and
insert lengths with 1% volume concentration of Graphite-SiO2/Water hybrid nanofluid.

4.3. Derivation of regression equations
In the literature, almost every experimental study proposed a cor-
relation for Nusselt number and friction factor values for different na-
nofluids and twisted tape inserts with different geometrical properties.
From the present experimental study, regression equations for Nusselt
number and friction factor are proposed and compared with the ex-
perimental data for different volumetric concentrations of Graphite-
SiO2/Water hybrid nanofluids and also for increasing length of PLA
QCTT inserts. For the best of our knowledge, these are the first corre-
lations proposed for changing length of the tape inserts as well as dif-
ferent volume concentrations of Graphite-SiO2/Water hybrid nano-
fluids. The proposed regression correlation for the Nusselt number is
then defined as a function of Reynolds number, Prandtl number, vo-
lume concentration of the hybrid nanofluid and the length of the
twisted tape insert as follows:
Nureg = 0.00012Re1.148294Pr 1.596637 (1 + φ)9.429766 (l/ L + 1)0.401864 ,
R2 = 0.99, SE = 0.014
where the coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.99 and standard error
of SE is 0.014. The comparison of the measured Nusselt numbers and
the proposed regression equation Nusselt numbers is shown in Fig. 4
with error margin of ± 5%. The results are evaluated and compared for
3400 < Re < 11,000, volume concentrations 0.5% and 1%, tape in-
sert lengths of 14, 28 and 42 cm at 25 °C constant inlet temperature for
Graphite-SiO2 /Water hybrid nanofluid with QCTT inserts. It is ob-
served that the proposed regression correlation is accurate enough for
the evaluation of Nusselt number of Graphite-SiO2 /Water hybrid na-
nofluid with QCTT inserts.
Friction factor regression correlation was generated for water and
Graphite-SiO2/Water hybrid nanofluids with and without QCTT inserts
for all experimental data. The proposed regression equation for the
friction factor is defined as a function of Reynolds number, con-
centration and the length of the twisted tape insert as follows:
freg = 0.646889Re−0.318925639 (1 + φ)1.90706352 (l/ L + 1)7.158388067 (25)
where the coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.96. The friction coef-
(24) ficient values evaluated using the regression equations are compared

10
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 107 (2019) 1–13

120

Water with smooth tube

Water with twisted tape
100 0.5 vol. % with twisted tape
1 vol. % with twisted tape

80

Nu
60

40

20

Quad channel twisted tape length: 28 cm

0
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000

Re a)

0.30
0.5 vol. % Graphite-SiO2 /Water
Smooth tube
0.25 14 cm
28 cm
42 cm
0.20

0.15
f

0.10

0.05

0.00
3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000

Re b)

Fig. 10. Friction factor vs Reynolds number, effect of hybrid nanofluid concentration in smooth tube (a), and length of twisted tape inserts for water flow (b).

with the friction factor evaluated using the Eq. (19) and shown in Fig. 6
within an error margin of ± 10.
5. Conclusions
The heat transfer characteristics of Graphite-SiO2/Water hybrid
nanofluid is investigated experimentally for two different volume con-
centrations and three different lengths of PLA QCTT inserts under
constant heat flux. The leading outputs is summed up below:
• Increasing volume concentration increases the heat transfer coeffi-
cient for increasing mass flow rate, and increases Nusselt number for
increasing Reynolds number
• For both water and hybrid nanofluid as a working fluid, the in-
creasing length of QCTT inserts increase the heat transfer coeffi-
cient.
• At high Reynolds numbers, the Nusselt number increases with both
increasing concentration of hybrid nanofluid and increasing length
of the tape insert.
• In general, the friction factor decreases with increasing Reynolds
number as expected, however it is always higher for higher con-
centrations and longer tape inserts.
• Finally, pressure drop increases with increasing Reynolds number
and it is always larger for higher concentrations and longer tape
inserts expectedly.
• Empirical correlations are generated for friction factor and Nusselt
number for Graphite-SiO2 /Water hybrid nanofluids with QCTT in-
serts for changing concentrations. The error margins for Nusselt
number and friction factor are ± 5% and ± 10%, respectively.
Acknowledgments
The authors admit the reception the economic funding by the
“Research Chair Grant” National Science and Technology Development
Agency (NSTDA), the Thailand Research Fund (TRF), the National
Research University Project (NRU) and King Mongkut's University of
Technology Thonburi through the “KMUTT 55th Anniversary
Commemorative Fund”.

11
A.S. Dalkılıç, et al.
Fig. 11. Pressure drop vs mass flow rate, effect of hybrid nanofluid concentration in smooth tube (a), and length of twisted tape inserts for water flow (b).
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