scholarly journals Experimental Study on the Flow and Heat Transfer of Graphene-Based Lubricants in a Horizontal Tube

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1675
Author(s):  
Zhongpan Cai ◽  
Maocheng Tian ◽  
Guanmin Zhang

To improve the heat transfer characteristics of lubricant, graphene-based lubricants were prepared by adding graphene particles, due to its advantages of excellent thermal conductivity and two-dimensional sheet structure. In the present study, its physical properties were measured. A flow heat transfer experiment platform was built to study the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the graphene lubricating oil in a horizontal circular tube. The results show that the graphene lubricant prepared using a two-step approach had good stability, and the dispersibility was good without the agglomeration phenomenon, according to measurements undertaken using an electron microscope and centrifuge. The thermal conductivity and viscosity of graphene lubricant increased with the increase of the graphene concentration, and the thermal conductivity of graphene lubricant with the same concentration decreased with the increase of temperature. When the concentration was equal, the convective heat transfer Nusselt number (Nu) of graphene lubricant increased with the increase of Reynolds number (Re). When Re was equal, the convective heat transfer Nu increased with the increase of graphene particle concentration, and the maximum Nu increased by 40%.

Author(s):  
S. Kabelac ◽  
K. B. Anoop

Nanofluids are colloidal suspensions with nano-sized particles (<100nm) dispersed in a base fluid. From literature it is seen that these fluids exhibit better heat transfer characteristics. In our present work, thermal conductivity and the forced convective heat transfer coefficient of an alumina-water nanofluid is investigated. Thermal conductivity is measured by a steady state method using a Guarded Hot Plate apparatus customized for liquids. Forced convective heat transfer characteristics are evaluated with help of a test loop under constant heat flux condition. Controlled experiments under turbulent flow regime are carried out using two particle concentrations (0.5vol% and 1vol %). Experimental results show that, thermal conductivity of nanofluids increases with concentration, but the heat transfer coefficient in the turbulent regime does not exhibit any remarkable increase above measurement uncertainty.


Author(s):  
Zhongxuan Du ◽  
Wensheng Lin ◽  
Anzhong Gu

Coalbed methane (CBM) is a kind of mixed gas with the principal component of methane and nitrogen. Supercritical convective heat transfer of CH4/N2 cooled in horizontal circular tubes is one of the most important heat transfer processes during CBM liquefaction. In this paper, supercritical CH4/N2 cooling has been numerically investigated in a horizontal tube by using the low Reynolds number turbulence model proposed by Lam and Bremhorst. The study first focuses on the effect of nitrogen content on CBM heat transfer characteristics. The results indicate that supercritical convective heat transfer of CBM is mainly affected by the fact that the CBM properties change with nitrogen content. Then the study focuses on the buoyancy effect on heat transfer characteristics at different mass fluxes, heat fluxes and pressures. The results show that buoyancy effect increases with the decrease of mass flux or with the increase of heat flux, and the relationship Gr/Re2.7 predicts the buoyancy effect onset better than Gr/Re2. When the buoyancy effect is considerably strong, buoyancy effect on heat transfer in the top line of the horizontal circular tube is equivalent to buoyancy-opposed heat transfer, and buoyancy effect on heat transfer in the bottom line to buoyancy-aided heat transfer. The correlation of buoyancy-opposed heat transfer proposed by Bruch et al. predicts well for the supercritical heat transfer of methane. When the buoyancy effect is negligible, the calculated results agree well with the Gnielinski correlation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 501-504 ◽  
pp. 2307-2310
Author(s):  
Ye Wang

Natural convective heat transfer is the most important means to supply heat load for resident building to keep necessary indoor air temperature in winter. To determine the surface convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) of a radiator is of primary importance to evaluate the heat flow within building interiors, and thereby to affect the thermal comfort and the overall energy consumption of a building. In this paper, a turbulent k-ε model is used to numerically analyze the heat transfer characteristics of a radiator used in a heating room in Lanzhou region of China. The results indicate that the averaged Nu number of radiator surface increases with increasing outer wall thermal conductivity, decreasing outdoor temperature and decreasing radiator surface area, respectively. And the outer wall thermal conductivity has weak influence on the local Nu number of radiator surface.


2011 ◽  
Vol 110-116 ◽  
pp. 393-399
Author(s):  
S.M. Sohel Murshed ◽  
C.A. Nieto de Castro ◽  
M.J.V. Lourenço ◽  
M.L.M. Lopes ◽  
F.J.V. Santos

Nanofluids have attracted great interest from researchers worldwide because of their reported superior thermal performance and many potential applications. However, there are many controversies and inconsistencies in reported experimental results of thermal conductivity, convective heat transfer coefficient and critical heat flux of nanofluids. In this paper, two major features of nanofluids, which are boiling and convective heat transfer characteristics are presented besides critically reviewing recent research and development on these areas of nanofluids.


2013 ◽  
Vol 757 ◽  
pp. 175-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ritu Gupta ◽  
Parminder Singh ◽  
R.K. Wanchoo

Nanofluids are engineered colloids made of a base fluid and nanoparticles, which become potential candidate for next generation heat transfer medium. Nanofluids have higher thermal conductivity and single-phase heat transfer coefficients than their base fluids. The use of additives is a technique applied to enhance the heat transfer performance of base fluids. Recent articles address the unique features of nanofluids, such as enhancement of heat transfer, improvement in thermal conductivity, increase in surface volume ratio, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, etc. A complete understanding about the heat transfer enhancement in forced convection in laminar and turbulent flow with nanofluids is necessary for the practical applications. There are many controversies and inconsistencies in reported arguments and experimental results on various thermal characteristics such as effective thermal conductivity, convective heat transfer coefficient and boiling heat transfer rate of nanofluids. As of today, researchers have mostly focused on anomalous thermal conductivity of nanofluids. Although investigations on boiling, droplet spreading, and convective heat transfer are very important in order to exploit nanofluids as the next generation coolants, considerably less efforts have been made on these major features of nanofluids. This review summarizes recent research on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids in forced and free convection flows and identifies opportunities for future research.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Rios ◽  
Mehdi Kabirnajafi ◽  
Takele Gameda ◽  
Raid Mohammed ◽  
Jiajun Xu

The present study experimentally and numerically investigates the flow and heat transfer characteristics of a novel nanostructured heat transfer fluid, namely, ethanol/polyalphaolefin nanoemulsion, inside a conventionally manufactured minichannel of circular cross section and a microchannel heat exchanger of rectangular cross section manufactured additively using the Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) process. The experiments were conducted for single-phase flow of pure polyalphaolefin (PAO) and ethanol/PAO nanoemulsion fluids with two ethanol concentrations of 4 wt% and 8 wt% as well as for two-phase flow boiling of nanoemulsion fluids to study the effect of ethanol nanodroplets on the convective flow and heat transfer characteristics. Furthermore, the effects of flow regime of the working fluids on the heat transfer performance for both the minichannel and microchannel heat exchangers were examined within the laminar and transitional flow regimes. It was found that the ethanol/PAO nanoemulsion fluids can improve convective heat transfer compared to that of the pure PAO base fluid under both single- and two-phase flow regimes. While the concentration of nanoemulsion fluids did not reflect a remarkable distinction in single-phase heat transfer performance within the laminar regime, a significant heat transfer enhancement was observed using the nanoemulsion fluids upon entering the transitional flow regime. The heat transfer enhancement at higher concentrations of nanoemulsion within the transitional regime is mainly attributed to the enhanced interaction and interfacial thermal transport between ethanol nanodroplets and PAO base fluid. For two-phase flow boiling, heat transfer coefficients of ethanol/PAO nanoemulsion fluids were further enhanced when the ethanol nanodroplets underwent phase change. A comparative study on the flow and heat transfer characteristics was also implemented between the traditionally fabricated minichannel and additively manufactured microchannel of similar dimensions using the same working fluid of pure PAO and the same operating conditions. The results revealed that although the DMLS fabricated microchannel posed a higher pressure loss, a substantial heat transfer enhancement was achieved as compared to the minichannel heat exchanger tested under the same conditions. The non-post processed surface of the DMLS manufactured microchannel is likely to be the main contributor to the augmented heat transfer performance. Further studies are required to fully appreciate the possible mechanisms behind this phenomenon as well as the convective heat transfer properties of nanoemulsion fluids.


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