Heat transfer enhancement in shell and tube heat exchanger by using Al2O3/water and TiO2/water nanofluid

Nanofluids, potential heat transfer fluid with enhanced thermophysical properties are recently being experimented in different heat transfer device for better performance. Heat transfer characteristics of γ-Al2O3/water and TiO2/water nanofluids has been numerically investigated in a shell and tube heat exchanger under turbulent flow condition. The effects of Reynolds number, volume concentration of suspended nanoparticles, and particle type on the heat characteristics has been investigated. Based on the results, addition of naoparticles to the base fluid causes the significant enhancement of heat transfer characteristics. For γ-Al2O3/water maximum improvement in convective heat transfer coefficient is 41.8% while TiO2/water shows maximum 37% increment. The introduction of nanoparticle incorporates more viscosity than base fluid which eventually increases the pressure drop, but the drop has not been found to be considerably high.