Experimental investigation for heat transfer performance of CuO-water nanofluid in a double pipe heat exchanger

In recent scenario world is facing the problem of energy consumption. Researchers are keen on developing less energy consuming devices; in this regard, heat transfer using nanofluid has got the attention of current researchers for application in heat exchangers. In present study, an experiment was performed on double pipe heat exchanger using CuO-water nanofluids and sodium lauryl sulphate as the surfactant to examine the thermal performance factor (TPF) and pressure drop. The studies were conducted for a single phase fully developed flow with volume fractions of 0.005%, 0.02%, 0.04%, and 0.07% in the turbulent range between Reynolds numbers 5500 and 15,000. Along with thermal conductivity, Brownian motion and thickness of interfacial layer are also responsible for heat transfer enhancement in heat exchangers. For a volume fraction of 0.07% at Reynolds number 5500, the maximum enhancement in Nusselt number was observed 67.9% with the penalty of 189.47% increase in friction factor. The highest TPF recorded during the experiment is 1.18 for a volume fraction of 0.07% at 5500 Reynolds number. In present study a novel correlation was also developed for Nusselt number and friction factor. For better understanding the characterization of CuO nanoparticle, XRD, FeSEM, and EDS testing were conducted in the laboratory.