Laminar Convective Heat Transfer of Al2O3/Thermic Oil Nanofluid in a Plain Tube

An experimental investigation on convective heat transfer and friction factor characteristics of Al2O3/therminol 55 nanofluid in the plain tube under laminar flow with constant heat flux is presented. The nanofluids of 0.1%, 0.2% volume fractions are prepared for the property studies like thermal conductivity and viscosity. The thermal conductivity and viscosity are measured by using KD2 thermal property analyzer and Brooke field viscometer respectively. From the measurements, it is found that the viscosity increase is substantially higher than the increase in the thermal conductivity. Convective heat transfer experimentation in the laminar flow regime under constant heat flux boundary condition is also done using thermic fluid based nanofluids as working fluids. From the results it is found that the Nusselt number increases with Reynolds number for both pure thermic fluid and nanoparticle enhanced thermic fluids. The average increase in Nusselt number for thermic fluid based nanofluid in comparison with pure thermic fluid is 11.12% and 19.69% for 0.1% and 0.2% volume fractions respectively.