International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 808–816

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Modeling of shell and tube heat recovery exchanger operated with nanofluid
based coolants
K.Y. Leong a,b, R. Saidur a,⇑, T.M.I. Mahlia a, Y.H. Yau a
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Defense University of Malaysia, Sg. Besi Camp, 57000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The emergence of several challenging issues such as climate change, fuel price hike and fuel security have
Received 17 June 2011 become hot topics around the world. Therefore, introducing highly efficient devices and heat recovery
Received in revised form 10 October 2011 systems are necessary to overcome these challenges. It is reported that a high portion of industrial energy
Accepted 10 October 2011
is wasted as flue gas from heating plants, boilers, etc. This study has focused on the application of nano-
Available online 3 November 2011
fluids as working fluids in shell and tube heat recovery exchangers in a biomass heating plant. Heat
exchanger specification, nanofluid properties and mathematical formulations were taken from the liter-
Keywords:
ature to analyze thermal and energy performance of the heat recovery system. It was observed that the
Nanofluids
Heat recovery
convective and overall heat transfer coefficient increased with the application of nanofluids compared to
Energy ethylene glycol or water based fluids. It addition, 7.8% of the heat transfer enhancement could be
Flue gas achieved with the addition of 1% copper nanoparticles in ethylene glycol based fluid at a mass flow rate
of 26.3 and 116.0 kg/s for flue gas and coolant, respectively.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Several challenging issues such as climate change, increase of
fuel price and fuel security have become hot topics around the
world. Therefore, much attention has been focused towards intro-
ducing highly efficient devices and heat recovery systems for better
utilization of energy. United State Energy Information Administra-
tion [1] reported that 21.8% quadrillion Btu energy was consumed
by the industrial sector in 2009. Teke et al. [2] revealed that about
26% of the industrial energy is wasted in the form of hot gas or fluid.
One can imagine the possible savings derived from recovering this
energy by just a small fraction. Heat recovery does not only benefit
in terms of energy and cost saving but also reduces the emission of
green house gasses. Heat recovery systems utilize heat exchangers
to recover the waste heat. Addition of fins and increase of the heat
transfer area are commonly applied to enhance the efficiency of
the heat recovery system. However, these approaches lead to a lar-
ger and bulky heat exchanger. Kulkarni et al. [3] concluded that
the usage of fins and micro channels have already reached their lim-
it. The recent advances in nanotechnology have provided possibili-
ties in advancing technology used in the heat exchanger. New
generation of heat transfer fluids which exhibit higher thermal con-
ductivity known as nanofluids was developed by Argonne Labora-
tory. Nanofluids are suspension of nanometer particles in a base
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 3 79677611; fax: +60 3 79675317.
E-mail addresses: saidur912@yahoo.com, saidur@um.edu.my (R. Saidur).
fluid. Saidur et al. [4] reviewed comprehensively the possible appli-
cations of nanofluids in engine cooling, transformer cooling,
machining process and nuclear reactor cooling. It is expected that,
the performance of a heat recovery system can be greatly enhanced
by applying this fluid.
This study attempts to investigate thermal and energy perfor-
mance of a shell and tube heat recovery using a nanofluid based
coolant. It focuses on the recovering waste heat from flue gas pro-
duced by a biomass fired heating plant. Chen et al. [5] reported that
flue gases from waste to energy plant often contain 15–40% of
fuel’s heat content. Moreover, Saidur et al. [6] concluded a signifi-
cant amount of heat energy produced by burning fuel is lost
through flue gases. To our best knowledge, there is no work focus-
ing on recovering waste heat from flue gas using nanofluid based
coolant. Ethylene glycol and water based coolants were chosen
since they are commonly used as a heat transfer fluid. In addition,
ethylene glycol provides freezing protection due to its lower freez-
ing point which is essential in cold climate regions. As for copper
nanoparticles, it offers better thermal conductivity compared to
other commonly used particles.
1.1. Thermal conductivity enhancement of nanofluids
Water, mineral oil and ethylene glycol are often used in heat ex-
changer applications, such as radiators, micro channel heat sink,
heat pipe and boilers. Conventional heat transfer fluids exhibit
lower thermal conductivity, which limit their cooling or heating

0017-9310/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2011.10.027
 K.Y. Leong et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 808–816 809

Nomenclature

A area, m2 V volumetric flow rate, m3/s

Ac,f cross flow area, m2
Ao,t tube side flow area per pass, m2 Greek symbols
B baffle length, m q density, kg/m3
cp specific heat, J/kg K / volume fraction
D, d diameter, m l dynamic viscosity, Ns/m2
F friction factor e heat exchanger effectiveness
h convective heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K Dp pressure drop, Pa
k thermal conductivity, kW/m K
L length of tube, m Subscripts
m_ mass flow rate, kg/s cf cross flow
Nu Nusselt number e equivalent
NTU number of heat transfer units f fluid/basefluid
Nt,p number of tubes per pass fg flue gas
NT total number of tubes i inner or inlet
Ds
NTC Pt m mean
P pump power, kW nf nanofluids
Pr Prandtl number o outer, outlet
Pt square tube pitch, mm p particle
Re Reynolds number s shell
T temperature, °C w wall
Uo overall heat transfer coefficient, W/m2 K
u velocity, m/s

performance. In recent years, thermal scientists and engineers
have been focusing on improving the thermal conductivity of base
fluids by adding nanoparticles. Considerable researchers have
found that nanofluids offer superior thermal conductivity. Thermal
conductivity of ethylene glycol based copper nanofluids with 0.3%
concentration enhanced up to 40% compared to that of the base
fluid [7]. Liu et al. [8] concluded that water based copper nanofl-
uids produced from chemical reduction methods have substantial
higher thermal conductivity (23.8% higher) than water base fluids.
Hwang et al. [9] revealed that nanoparticles volume fraction, nano-
particle and base fluid thermal conductivity have substantial effect
on nanofluids thermal conductivity. These authors concluded that
thermal conductivity of multiwall carbon nanotube nanofluids is
almost increased linearly with the addition of nanoparticles. Yoo
et al. [10] studied nanofluids thermal conductivity prepared by
two-step method. Thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol based
zinc oxide (ZnO) nanofluid increases non-linearly with the aug-
mentation of nanoparticle volume fractions [11]. Nanofluids ther-
mal conductivity also depends on the nanoparticle size, volume
fraction and temperature [12]. Recently, Yu et al. [13] found that
thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol based 5% graphene nanofl-
uids can be improved up to 86% compared to that of the base fluid.
Thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol based silver nanofluids in-
creased up to 10%, 16% and 18% as the amount of silver nanoparti-
cles was at 1000, 5000 and 10000 ppm, respectively [14].
1.2. Convection heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids
Heris et al. [15] studied convective heat transfer performance of
water based alumina nanofluid in a circular tube under constant
wall temperature. Findings implied that there is an augmentation
of the nanofluid convective heat transfer coefficient with the in-
crease of nanoparticle volume fraction. The authors concluded that
the heat transfer coefficient is much higher than that predicted
from single phase heat transfer correlation. Ding et al. [16] ob-
served that aqueous-based carbon nanofluid offers the highest
enhancement of convective heat transfer compared to that of
aqueous-based titanate and aqueous-based titania nanofluids. He
et al. [17] concluded that convective heat transfer coefficient has
its maximum value at the entrance region. The authors added that
this property is more affected by nanofluid thermal conductivity.
Other factors such as viscosity, Brownian, lift and thermophoretic
forces have minor effect on convective heat transfer coefficient of
nanofluids. Jung et al. [18] studied the convective heat transfer of
alumina in rectangular micro channels. It was observed that con-
vective heat transfer coefficient of 1.8% Al2O3 nanofluid in laminar
flow increases to about 32% compared to distilled water. Kim et al.
[19] investigated the effect of convective heat transfer coefficients
derived from thermal conductivity. His study found that thermal
conductivity enhancement has a key role in nanofluids convection.
However, an amorphous carbonic nanofluid which has similar
thermal conductivity value as pure water did not show any convec-
tion improvement at the turbulent flow. Vajjha et al. [20] studied
convective heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics of nano-
fluids in turbulent flow. Similar to that reported literature, convec-
tion heat transfer increases with the particle volume fractions.
However, it is found that pressure drop increases with increasing
particle volume fraction and with the Reynolds number. Authors
explained that it is due to increase of viscosity of the nanofluids.
Duongthongsuk and Wongwises [21] found that water based
TiO2 nanofluids experienced a slightly higher pressure drop with
increased Reynolds number compared to that of base fluid at its
turbulent regime. Mohammed et al. [22] revealed that there is no
significant pressure drop difference between water based alumina
nanofluids and base fluid at lower Reynold’s number in the micro
channel heat sink. Saidur et al. [23] in their review article proposed
that efficiency of nanofluid applications depend on the pressure
drop of the coolant.
2. Specification of shell and tube heat exchanger and operating
condition
Necessary input data such as heat exchanger specification and
operating characteristic were taken from the literatures. The
810 K.Y. Leong et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 808–816

Table 1 which lead to better thermal properties characteristics. Viscosity,

Composition of flue gas from biomass heating plant [5]. specific heat and density are calculated from correlations found
Type of gases Percentage from the literature. The obtained thermal-physical properties and
CO2 12.1 stability of nanofluids are assumed to remain constant in the appli-
H2O 24.4 cation of heat exchanger. Thermal properties of flue gas and base
O2 3.2 fluid such as ethylene glycol and water are needed in calculation.
N2 60.3 These are depicted in Table 3.
Flue gas dew point 64.3 °C

3. Theoretical derivation on heat transfer and energy

performance in shell and tube heat recovery exchanger
Table 2
Specification of shell and tube heat exchanger and operating condition for flue gas Mathematical formulations shown in Section 3.1 were taken
and nanofluids [5]. from references [28–31]. The heat transfer and energy perfor-
mance of shell and tube heat exchangers operated with conven-
Description Type/value
tional base fluid such as ethylene glycol and water were
Type of heat exchanger Single tube pass, type E shell and tube heat compared with ethylene glycol and water based copper nanofluids.
exchanger
Tube outside diameter, do 25.4
(mm) 3.1. Flue gas side calculation
Tube inner diameter, di 22.9
(mm) Initially, the specifications of heat exchanger were used to cal-
Pitch, pt/do 1.75
culate the cross flow area and equivalent diameter. These two val-
Total tube number, N 1024
Tube layout Rotated square ues were needed to calculate the flue gas Reynolds number.
Shell inner diameter, Ds 2090 Eventually, the flue gas Reynolds’s number was used in the convec-
(mm) tive heat transfer coefficient formulation. The mathematical for-
Shell thickness, ds (mm) 14 mulations used in this study are shown below.
Baffle type Single-segmental
Baffle spacing, B (mm) 1776
Baffle cut 25% (a) Crossflow area, Acf can be determined by using Eq. (1):
Nanofluids mass flow rate 111.6
(kg/s) Acf ¼ ðDs  NTC do ÞB ð1Þ
Flue gas mass flow rate (kg/ 26.3
s) where
Nanofluids inlet 30
temperature (°C) Ds
NTC ¼
Flue gas temperature (°C) 150 Pt
(b) Equivalent diameter, De can be determined by using Eq. (2):
2
4ðP2t  p4do Þ
composition of flue gas was obtained from Chen et al. [5] as shown De ¼ ð2Þ
pdo
in Table 1. It was the flue gas composition for biomass heating
plant. The specification of heat exchanger and operating condition (c) Flue gas Reynolds, Refg number can be determined by using
are shown in Table 2. The length of tubing is assumed to be 5 m. Eq.
 (3):

Thermal conductivity of nanofluids is obtained from Eastman [7] mfg De
Refg ¼ ð3Þ
and Jang and Choi [24] as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. Acf lfg
Leong et al. [25] used Eastman thermal conductivity data in their
(d) Flue gas convective heat transfer coefficient, hfg can be deter-
study on automotive radiator. Higher nanofluids thermal conduc-
mined by using Eq.(4):
tivity was observed in Eastman study since the nanofluids were 0:36k 0:55 13
produced using one step method. Murshed et al. [26] revealed that hfg ¼ Refg Pr fg ð4Þ
De
the advantage of one-step method is that nanoparticles agglomer-
ation can be minimized. They added that proper synthesis and dis-
persion method is important factor to produce stable nanofluids

Fig. 1. Thermal conductivity ratio of ethylene glycol based copper nanofluids [7]. Fig. 2. Thermal conductivity ratio of water based copper nanofluids [24].
 K.Y. Leong et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 808–816 811

Table 3
Thermal properties of flue gas, ethylene glycol and water.

Flue gas thermal properties [27] Thermal conductivity (W/mK) Dynamic viscosity (Ns/m2)
Specific heat (kJ/kg K)
1.148 2.9  105 1.9  105
Temperature (K) Thermal conductivity (W/mK) Density (kg/m3) Dynamic viscosity (Ns/m2) Specific heat (kJ/kg K)
Thermal properties ethylene glycol [28]
360 261  103 1074.0 0.278  102 2.682
370 262  103 1066.7 0.228  102 2.728
Thermal properties water [28]
360 674  103 967.18 324  106 4.203
370 677  103 963.39 306  106 4.209

do
3.2. Nanofluids side calculation 1 1 do lnð di Þ 1 do
¼ þ þ ð15Þ
U o hfg 2kw hnf di
Mathematical formulations to calculate Prandtl number, spe-
cific heat, density and viscosity of nanofluids are shown in this sec- where kw is thermal conductivity of copper wall.
tion in Eqs (5)–(8). These properties were used in calculating the (g) Total tube outside heat transfer area, As can be determined
convective heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer rates of by using Eq. (16)
nanofluids. As ¼ pLdo Nt ð16Þ
(h) Number of heat transfer units, NTU can be determined by
(a) Nanofluids density, qnf can be determined by using Eq.(5) using Eq. (17)
qnf ¼ ð1  ;Þqf þ ;qp ð5Þ U o At;o
NTU ¼ ð17Þ
C min
(b) Nanofluids specific heat cp,nf can be determined by using Eq.
(6) where
ð1  ;Þqf cp;f þ ;qp cp;p _ p Þnf
C max ¼ ðmC ð18Þ
cp;nf ¼ ð6Þ
qnf
_ p Þnf
C min ¼ ðmC ð19Þ
(c) Nanofluids viscosity lnf can be determined by using Eq. (7)
lnf 1
¼ ð7Þ (i) Heat exchanger effectiveness, e can be determined by using
lf ð1  ;Þ2:5 Eq. (20) Assuming single pass, both fluids unmixed
1
(d) Nanofluids Prandtl number, Prnf can be determined by using e ¼ 1  exp½ð  ÞðNTUÞ0:22 fexp½C  ðNTUÞ0:78   1g ð20Þ
Eq. (8) C
cp;nf lnf where
Prnf ¼ ð8Þ
knf C min
C ¼ ð21Þ
C max
Mathematical formulations used to calculate convective and overall
heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer rate are expressed by Eqs. (j) Heat transfer rate, q can be determined by using Eq. (22)
(9)–(22). q ¼ eC min ðT fg;i  T nf ;i Þ ð22Þ
(a) Number of tubes per pass, Nt,p can be determined by using
Pressure drop and pumping power can be determined by using fol-
Eq. (9)
lowing formulations from Eq. (23)–(27).
Nt;p ¼ NT ð9Þ
(a) Friction factor, F can be determined by using Eq. (23) and
since single pass tube is considered. (24)
(b) Tube side flow area per pass, Ao,t can be determined by using 64
F¼ laminar flow ð23Þ
Eq. (10) Renf
p 2
Ao;t ¼ di Nt;p ð10Þ
4 F ¼ ð0:790 ln Renf  1:64Þ2 turbulent flow ð24Þ
(c) Nanofluids Reynolds number, Renf can be determined by
(b) Mean velocity of nanofluids, um can be determined by using
using Eq. (11)
Eq. (25)
mnf di
Renf ¼ ð11Þ 4mnf
Ao;t lnf Um ¼ ð25Þ
qnf pd2i
(d) Nusselt number, Nunf can be determined by using Eq. (12)
and (13) (c) Pressure drop, Dp of nanofluids can be determined by using
Nunf ¼ 3:66 forlaminar flow ð12Þ Eq. (26)
qnf u2m
Nunf ¼ 0:024Re0:8 0:4 Dp ¼ F L ð26Þ
nf Pr nf for turbulent flow ð13Þ 2di
(e) Nanofluids heat transfer coefficient, hnf can be determined (d) Pump power, P can be determined by using Eq. (27)
by using Eq. (14) P ¼ V nf X Dp ð27Þ
Nunf knf
hnf ¼ ð14Þ
di
3.3. Test procedures and conditions
(f) Overall heat transfer coefficient, Uo can be determined by
using Eq. (15) where fouling factors are not considered in The analysis in this study was conducted based on flue gas,
this analysis. nanofluids and base fluid properties and operating conditions
812 K.Y. Leong et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 808–816

discussed in Section 2. In this study, nanoparticle volume fraction,

flue gas and nanofluids mass flow rate were varied to determine
thermal and energy performance of the heat recovery exchanger.
The test procedures and conditions in this study shown below.

3.3.1. Effect of copper nanoparticles volume fraction on thermal and

energy performance of shell and tube heat recovery exchanger
In this analysis, flue gas and nanofluids mass flow rate were
kept constant at 26.3 and 111.6 kg/s, respectively. Nanoparticles
volume fractions were augmented from 0% to 1% for ethylene gly-
col based copper nanofluids and from 0% to 2% for water based cop-
per nanofluids. Nanofluids Reynolds number, convective and
overall heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer rate were then
determined. Other parameters such as pumping power as well as
Fig. 3. Effect of copper volume fraction to coolant Reynolds number at constant flue
the nanofluids pressure drop were also determined.
gas and coolant mass flow rate.

3.3.2. Effect of flue gas mass flow rate on thermal performance of shell
and tube heat exchanger
In this analysis, the flue gas mass flow rate was varied from 26.3
to 42 kg/s. Reynolds number for flue gas was included. Nanofluids
convective and overall heat transfer coefficient and heat transfer
rate were also analyzed in this section. Nanofluid subjected in this
study was ethylene glycol based copper nanofluids.

3.3.3. Effect of coolant mass flow rate on thermal performance of shell

and tube heat exchanger
Coolant mass flow rate was varied from 200 to 230 kg/s. Nano-
fluids convective and overall heat transfer coefficient and heat
transfer rate were also analyzed in this section. Nanofluid sub-
jected in this study was ethylene glycol based copper nanofluids.

4. Results and discussions

Fig. 4. Effect of copper volume fraction to coolant convective heat transfer
4.1. Effect of copper nanoparticle volume fraction on thermal and coefficient and overall heat transfer coefficient at constant flue gas and coolant
energy performance of shell and tube heat recovery exchanger mass flow rate.

4.1.1. Ethylene glycol based copper nanofluids

The effect of copper nanoparticle volume fraction on thermal
and energy performance of the heat recovery exchanger was car-
ried out. In this analysis, the flue gas and coolant flow rate were
kept constant at 26.3 and 111.6 kg/s, respectively. In this condition,
the flue gas convective heat transfer coefficient was found to be
56.4 W/m2K. With the increase of the nanoparticle volume frac-
tions, the coolant Reynolds’s number was decreased as shown in
Fig. 3. In this analysis, all parameters except dynamic viscosity of
coolant were kept constant. It is noted that, dynamic viscosity of
coolant was increased with the nanoparticle volume fractions.
Addition of nanoparticles increases the fluid shear stress associated
with a higher dynamic viscosity. Substituting a higher value of this
property into Eq. (11) definitely decreases the coolant Reynolds
number as shown in Fig. 3. It is assumed that the flow is of laminar
type.
Study found that the convective heat transfer coefficient for
nanofluids is proportional with the nanoparticle volume fractions Fig. 5. Effect copper volume fraction to heat transfer rate at constant flue gas
as depicted in Fig. 4. In Eq. (14), nanofluid heat transfer coefficient (26.3 kg/s) and coolant (111.6 kg/s) mass flow rate.
increases since it exhibits higher thermal conductivity with the in-
crease of nanoparticle volume fractions. Fig. 4 also depicts a higher
overall heat transfer coefficient observed with copper nanoparticle nanoparticle volume fraction. For instance, with an addition of 1%
volume fraction. About 9.5% augmentation was observed at 1% copper nanoparticles in ethylene glycol based fluid, 7.8% heat
copper nanoparticles compared to the base fluid. Therefore, heat transfer enhancement was observed at 26.3 and 111.6 kg/s flue
transfer area reduction can be achieved if the same overall heat gas mass flow rate and coolant mass flow rate, respectively. Higher
transfer coefficient is used. Heat transfer enhancement was ob- thermal conductivity of nanofluid probably is the main reason con-
served with the particle volume fractions as shown in Fig. 5. It tributing to heat transfer enhancement. More heat can be absorbed
was calculated by using Eq. (22). In this equation, the effectiveness and transferred with the application of nanofluids. The potential
of the heat recovery exchanger was found to increase with copper mechanism of thermal conductivity enhancement is due to the
 K.Y. Leong et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 808–816
Fig. 6. Effect copper volume fraction to coolant pressure drop and pump power at
constant flue gas (26.3 kg/s) and coolant (111.6 kg/s) mass flow rate.
nanoparticles’ heat transfer behavior as well as for the formation of
liquid-particle interface layer.
As for energy needed to pump the coolant, findings implied that
the pressure drop decreased with copper nanoparticle volume frac-
tions as shown in Fig. 6. Therefore, lower pumping power is needed
when nanofluids is used in the heat recovery exchanger. About
10.99% less power or energy was observed at 1% nanoparticle vol-
ume fraction compared to that of ethylene glycol base fluid. This
result contradicts the pressure drop studies obtained by several
researchers [20,21]. In their studies, comparison between base
fluid and nanofluids pressure drop was conducted at constant Rey-
nolds’s number which affects the nanofluid mass flow rate. Higher
mass flow rate is needed to produce the same value of Reynold’s
number since the viscosity of nanofluids increased with particle
volume fraction. Subsequently, more pumping power is needed.
However, in the present analysis, the coolant mass flow was kept
constant. As a result the coolant velocity decreases with particle
volume fractions.
Eq. (25) shows that velocity decreases due to the increase of
nanofluids density. Definitely, nanofluids density increases due to
the higher density of nanoparticles. Nanofluids density can be
determined based on rule of mixture. The lower value of velocity
substantially decreased the pressure drop, although the friction
factor was increased slightly with the particle volume fractions.
4.1.2. Water based copper nanofluids
Similar analysis was done on water based copper nanofluids. In
this analysis, the coolant mass flow rate is fixed at 12 kg/s to en-
sure that a laminar flow is obtained. Other parameters were the
same as in the previous analysis. However, the study found that
no heat transfer enhancement was observed at the turbulent flow
rate. It might be due to the movement of fluid molecules being too
fast to absorb the heat from the flue gas. Table 4 depicts the
summary of thermal and energy performance enhancement of heat
recovery exchanger operated with water based copper nanofluids
compared to that of base fluid.
4.2. Effect of flue gas mass flow rate on thermal performance of shell
and tube heat recovery exchanger
This section discusses the influence of flue gas mass flow rate to
thermal performance of heat recovery exchanger. The coolant mass
flow rate was fixed at 111.6 kg/s. Flue gas Reynolds’s number was
found to increase with mass flow rate as calculated in Eq. (3). In
813
Table 4
Thermal and energy performance of water based nanofluids containing 2% of copper
nanoparticles compared to water base fluid at 12 kg/s mass flow rate.
Number Description Water based copper
nanofluids (%)
1 Coolant convective heat transfer 33.4
enhancement
2 Overall heat transfer coefficient 10.11
enhancement
3 Heat transfer enhancement 4.53
4 Pump power (lesser) 22.5
this equation, the cross flow area, equivalent diameter and flue
gas dynamic viscosity were kept constant. Then, the higher value
of flue gas convective heat transfer was calculated using Eq. (4).
In Eq. (4), the Reynolds’s number was increased with mass flow
rate. Other parameters such as equivalent diameter and flue gas
Prandtl number were kept constant. Hence, convective heat trans-
fer coefficient of flue gas is proportional with mass flow rate as
shown in Fig. 7. It is due to the large number of random and bulk
motion of flue gas molecules. This value was substituted into Eq.
(15) to calculate the overall convective heat transfer coefficient
which was found to be proportional to flue gas mass flow rate as
depicted in Fig. 8. As the flue gas mass flow rate increases, more
energy can be transferred from the flue gas to the coolants due
to the extensive random and bulk motion of flue gas molecules. In-
crease of flue gas mass flow rate will decrease the thermal resis-
tance of flue gas. It also shows that overall heat transfer
coefficient increases with the augmentation of particle volume
fraction. Moreover, thermal conductivity of nanofluids increases
with the particle volume fraction. Higher value of thermal conduc-
tivity leads to the higher amount of heat that can be transferred by
the nanofluid. Fig. 9 shows that the heat transfer rate of 1% copper
nanofluids is higher than of a base fluid. At 1% of copper nanofluids,
15.97% heat transfer enhancement is observed when flue gas mass
flow rate increased from 26.3 to 42 kg/s.
4.3. Effect of coolant mass flow rate on thermal performance of shell
and tube heat Exchanger
This section presents the effect of coolant Reynolds’s number on
the thermal performance of heat recovery exchanger. Based on Eq.
(11), it was found that coolant Reynolds’s number is proportional
Fig. 7. Effect of flue gas mass flow rate to flue gas convective heat transfer
coefficient.
814 K.Y. Leong et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 808–816
Fig. 8. Effect of flue gas mass flow rate to overall heat transfer coefficient.
Fig. 9. Effect of flue gas mass flow rate to heat transfer rate.
with the mass flow rate at the constant volume fraction of copper
nanoparticle. With the increase of coolant Reynolds number, Nus-
selt number was increased as calculated using Eq. (13). Eq. (13)
was used since the calculated Reynolds number indicated that flow
is at a turbulent type. Substituting a higher value of Nusselt and
nanofluids thermal conductivity, the convective heat transfer of
coolants was higher than of base fluid, which is obtained from
Eq. (14). The same happened for an overall heat transfer coefficient
which is depicted in Fig. 10. Similar to previous analysis, heat
transfer rate is proportional to coolant mass flow rate as shown
in Fig. 11. However, only 0.7% enhancement is observed when
compared with 234 and 200 kg/s mass flow rate at 1% of copper
nanofluids. This indicates that the coolant mass flow rate only
plays a minor role in enhancing the heat transfer rate compared
to mass flow rate for flue gas.
4.4. Comparison of studies
Outcome of the previous section indicates that the overall heat
transfer coefficient increases with the usage of nanofluids. This
parameter depends on the convective heat transfer coefficient of
nanofluids as shown in Eq. (15). Overall heat transfer coefficient
increases with convective heat transfer coefficient. Eq. (14) also indi-
Fig. 10. Effect of coolant mass flow rate to overall heat transfer coefficient.
Fig. 11. Effect of coolant mass flow rate to heat transfer rate.
cates that convective heat transfer coefficient is proportional to Nus-
selt number. Aside from the thermal conductivity, heat transfer
coefficient of nanofluids plays a crucial role in determining the per-
formance of a heat recovery system. To further strengthen the valid-
ity of the result from current study, comparisons have been made
with the study conducted by Hojjat et al. [32]. In that study, the
authors investigated the thermal performance of a uniformly heated
circular tube. The present study compares the Nusselt number of the
nanofluid with deionized water in the circular tube. The higher value
of Nusselt number definitely increases the heat transfer coefficient
of the basefluid. Ijam and Saidur [33] revealed that convective heat
transfer increases with fluid’s thermal conductivity. The comparison
result has been shown in Fig. 12. The Nusselt numbers for ethylene
glycol based 0.5% copper nanofluid and water have been calculated
in the present study. It is found that Nusselt number for nanofluid is
higher than that of deionized water determined by Hojjat et al. [32].
From this, it can be proved that the application of nanofluids is capa-
ble of improving the convective heat transfer coefficient of the base
fluid. In addition, results from literatures also indicate that
 K.Y. Leong et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 55 (2012) 808–816
Fig. 12. Comparison of studies.
application of nanofluids improve the thermal performance of the
heat exchanger. Kulkarni et al. [3] found that superior performance
of convective heat transfer coefficient contributed by nanofluids
leads to higher efficiency of waste heat recovery heat exchanger. It
is also found that application of nanofluids in radiator increases
the Nusselt number of the basefluid [34,35]. As mentioned previ-
ously, Nusselt number is proportional to convective heat transfer
coefficient. Thermal performance of shell and tube gas cooler in
refrigeration system improved with the application of nanofluids
[36]. From these proven experimental results, there should be no
doubt on the performance of nanofluids in heat exchanger such as
shell and tube types.
5. Conclusion
The conclusions of this study are as follows:
(a) Heat transfer rate is improved with copper nanoparticle vol-
ume fractions. About 7.8% heat transfer augmentation was
observed for ethylene glycol based nanofluids containing
1% of copper nanoparticles at 26.3 kg/s and 111.6 kg/s mass
flow rate for flue gas and coolant, respectively. For water
based at 2% copper nanofluids, 4.53% heat transfer enhance-
ment in laminar flow was recorded.
(b) Nanofluid convective heat transfer coefficients and overall
heat transfer coefficients are higher than that of base fluid.
About 16.9% and 9.5% enhancements were recorded for eth-
ylene glycol with 1% copper nanoparticles compared to base
fluid. Less coolant pumping power (10.99%) is needed for
heat recovery exchanger operated with ethylene glycol
nanofluids containing 1% copper nanofluids compared to
base fluid.
(c) Thermal performance of the heat recovery exchanger is
increased with flue gas and coolant mass flow rate. About
15.97% heat transfer enhancement was observed for ethyl-
ene glycol based 1% copper nanoparticles when flue gas
mass flow rate was increased from 26.3 to 42 kg/s. Only
0.71% heat transfer enhancement was observed for ethylene
glycol based 1% copper nanofluids when coolant mass flow
rate was increased from 200 to 230 kg/s.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support
provided under the High Impact Research Grant (HIRG) scheme.
815
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