Nanofluid selection used for coolant in heat exchanger by multiple attribute decision-making method

Nanofluids are suspensions of nanosized nanoparticles in the base fluid which shows superior performance in heat transfer applications. As different nanoparticles have different characteristics, thus the selection of a proper nanoparticle for a given application becomes a very crucial task. Thus, the selection of nanoparticle has to be performed in such a manner that it will give a maximum thermal performance that to at least cost. This study involves the multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) method to select optimal metal oxide nanoparticles. In the present method, to determine the weights of different attributes considered, the analytical hierarchy method (AHP) is used and then to obtain the final ranking, a technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) is used. In the present study, the problem regarding the selection of suitable nanoparticle for heat exchanger applications is discussed. The most studies nanomaterials i.e., CuO, Al 2 O 3 , TiO 2 , SiO 2 , ZnO, Fe 2 O 3 are considered with different attributes. It is found that copper oxide (CuO) and aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) is the first-best and second-best alternatives, respectively. Empirical results obtained prove that this is a feasible approach to solving the nanoparticle selection problem.