Heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids in a double pipe heat exchanger with louvered strip inserts

The effect of using louvered strip inserts placed in a circular double pipe heat exchanger on the thermal and flow fields utilizing various types of nanofluids is studied numerically. The continuity, momentum and energy equations are solved by means of a finite volume method (FVM). The top and the bottom walls of the pipe are heated with a uniform heat flux boundary condition. Two different louvered strip insert arrangements (forward and backward) are used in this study with a Reynolds number range of 10,000 to 50,000. The effects of various louvered strip slant angles and pitches are also investigated. Four different types of nanoparticles, Al2O3, CuO, SiO2, and ZnO with different volume fractions in the range of 1% to 4% and different nanoparticle diameters in the range of 20nm to 50nm, dispersed in a base fluid (water) are used. The numerical results indicate that the forward louvered strip arrangement can promote the heat transfer by approximately 367% to 411% at the highest slant angle of α=30° and lowest pitch of S=30mm. The maximal skin friction coefficient of the enhanced tube is around 10 times than that of the smooth tube and the value of performance evaluation criterion (PEC) lies in the range of 1.28–1.56. It is found that SiO2 nanofluid has the highest Nusselt number value, followed by Al2O3, ZnO, and CuO while pure water has the lowest Nusselt number. The results show that the Nusselt number increases with decreasing the nanoparticle diameter and it increases slightly with increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles. The results reveal that there is a slight change in the skin friction coefficient when nanoparticle diameters of SiO2 nanofluid are varied.