Powder Technology 274 (2015) 258–267

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Powder Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/powtec

Convective heat transfer characteristics of magnetite nanofluid under the

influence of constant and alternating magnetic field
Mohammad Goharkhah a,⁎, Armia Salarian a, Mehdi Ashjaee a, Mahmoud Shahabadi b
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
b
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran

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

Article history: The effects of constant and alternating magnetic field on the laminar forced convective heat transfer of water
Received 26 August 2014 based magnetite (Fe3O4) ferrofluid in a heated tube are studied experimentally. The ferrofluid flows in a uniform-
Received in revised form 13 January 2015 ly heated tube with 9.8 mm diameter and 2680 mm length and is influenced by a magnetic field generated by
Accepted 18 January 2015
four electromagnets. The local convective coefficients are measured at both thermally developing and fully devel-
Available online 24 January 2015
oped regions for three different volume fractions of φ = 1, 1.5 and 2 % and in the Reynolds number range of
Keywords:
400–1200. The magnetic field and the resulting magnetic force distributions are also simulated to get further in-
Heat transfer sight into the heat transfer augmentation. In the absence of a magnetic field, results show that using magnetite
Forced convection ferrofluid with φ = 2 % improves the average convective heat transfer up to 13.5% compared to the DI-water
Magnetite at Re = 1200. This value grows up to 18.9% and 31.4% by application of constant and alternating magnetic
Nanofluid field with intensity of B = 500 G, respectively. The heat transfer is shown to be increased with the Reynolds num-
Alternating magnetic field ber, ferrofluid concentration, and the intensity of the magnetic field. Under the constant magnetic field, migration
Tube of nanoparticles to the tube surface increases the local thermal conductivity and consequently the heat transfer
near the electromagnets. Moreover, disruption of the thermal boundary layer and increased flow mixing seem to
be the possible reasons for the heat transfer enhancement by the alternating magnetic field.
© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction to the formation of chainlike structures in the ferrofluid which grow

Ferrofluid is a synthesized colloidal mixture of non-magnetic carrier
liquid, such as water or oil, containing single domain permanently mag-
netized nano particles, typically magnetite [1]. Several studied have
been carried out on the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids including
ferrofluids and effects of different parameters such as nanoparticle and
base fluid type, dimension and concentration of the nanoparticles, and
temperature have been investigated [2–10]. These studies indicate
that the thermal conductivity of the base fluid is enhanced noticeably
due to the addition of the nanoparticles. Thus, similar to the regular
nanofluids, ferrofluids can be used as working fluids of heat exchangers
in many industrial applications. Moreover, the distinctive characteristic
of the ferrofluid is the ability to respond to an external magnetic field.
Recent studies show the significant increase of the ferrofluid thermal
conductivity in the presence of an external magnetic field [11–14].
Among them are, Philip et al. [11] and Gavali et al. [14] who observed
300% and 200% thermal conductivity enhancement for Fe3O4 ferrofluid,
respectively. The enhancement of the thermal conductivity is attributed
⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tehran,
North Kargar street, Tehran, Iran. Tel.: +98 21 61114048.
E-mail addresses: mgoharkhah@ut.ac.ir (M. Goharkhah), armia.salarian@gmail.com
(A. Salarian), ashjaee@ut.ac.ir (M. Ashjaee), Shahabad@ut.ac.ir (M. Shahabadi).
with intensity of the magnetic field [11].
Furthermore, a number of studies have concerned the forced convec-
tion heat transfer of the ferrofluids in the absence and presence of an ex-
ternal magnetic field [15–19]. Sundar et al. [15] studied turbulent forced
convection heat transfer and friction factor of Fe3O4 magnetic nanofluid in
a tube in the absence of magnetic field and obtained correlations for esti-
mation of the Nusselt number and friction factor. Their results show that
the heat transfer coefficient is enhanced by 30.96% and friction factor by
10.01% at 0.6% volume fraction compared to the base fluid. Motozawa
et al. [16] studied the effect of magnetic field on heat transfer of water-
based magnetic fluid named W-40 in a rectangular duct. It is shown
that heat transfer coefficient increases locally in the region where mag-
netic field exists and has a direct relation with magnetic field intensity.
They reported a maximum of 20% heat transfer enhancement for their
studied case. Lajvardi et al. [17] studied the convective heat transfer of
ferrofluid flowing through a heated copper tube in the laminar flow re-
gime in the presence of a magnetic field. They attributed the enhance-
ment of the heat transfer to the improvement of thermophysical
properties of ferrofluid under the influence of the magnetic field.
Ghofrani et al. [18] investigated the effects of constant and alternating
magnetic fields on the forced convection heat transfer in a short tube.
They observed that applying a constant magnetic field adversely affects
or has a negligible effect on the heat transfer enhancement. However, it

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2015.01.031
0032-5910/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 M. Goharkhah et al. / Powder Technology 274 (2015) 258–267
increases up to 27.6% at low Reynolds numbers by an alternating magnet-
ic field.
Recently, Azizian et al. [19] studied the effect of a constant magnetic
field on the laminar convective heat transfer and pressure drop of mag-
netite nanofluid in a vertical tube and reported large enhancement in
the local heat transfer coefficient against only a 7.5% increase of pressure
drop. They also showed that the convective heat transfer enhancement
increases with the magnetic field intensity and gradient.
The aim of this paper is to experimentally investigate the effects
of constant and alternating magnetic field on forced convective
heat transfer of Fe3O4 nanofluid in a long heated tube. For this pur-
pose, the convective heat transfer coefficients have been measured
at both thermally developing and fully developed regions at different
Reynolds numbers, magnetic nanoparticle concentrations, and mag-
netic field intensities. The results will be compared with those of no
magnetic field.
2. Experimental method
2.1. Ferrofluid synthesis procedure
The ferrofluid samples are synthesized using the conventional
coprecipitation process. Briefly, stochiometric amounts of FeCl2.4H2O
and FeCl3.6H2O equivalent to the chemical composition of Fe3O4 are dis-
solved in DI-water and degassed via argon gas purging. Then, NH4OH
solution is gradually added into the iron solution under the mechanical
stirring until pH reaches 12. The black precipitate is removed from the
liquid phase via centrifugal and magnetic separation and washed sever-
al times by acetone and DI-water. The obtained solid product is
redispersed in DI-water and TMAH is added to the solution under stir-
ring in a manner that the desired volume fraction values of 1%, 1.5%
and 2% are achieved. The stirring process is continued for an additional
1 h until the stable ferrofluid is obtained. SEM image of the synthesized
sample is presented in Fig. 1.
As seen in Fig. 1, nanoparticles with various shapes are aggregated
and formed larger agglomerates. The mean particle size is 30 nm.
2.2. Experimental apparatus
An experimental setup has been designed, implemented, and used
to study the effects of constant and alternating magnetic fields on lam-
inar forced convection characteristics of Fe3O4 ferrofluid in a heated cir-
cular tube. The setup is presented schematically in Fig. 2. The main
components are: a constant temperature bath in a closed loop for
Fig. 1. SEM image of the synthesized sample.
259
circulating the nanofluid, tube test section, magnetic field generation
and control system, and data acquisition system for temperature
recording.
2.2.1. Fluid circulation system
Ferrofluid is circulated in a loop from a reservoir tank by a 24 V DC
pump driven by a DC power supply. Volumetric flow rate passing
through the loop is measured using a calibrated flow meter, and can
be varied by changing the voltage of the DC power supply of the
pump. There is also a fluid collection tank for measuring and calibrating
flow rates. The constant temperature bath (F10-Hc Julabo) is located
upstream of the pump to control the inlet temperature. The exit heated
ferrofluid from the tube passes through a spiral copper tube which is
submerged in the thermal bath reservoir. Ferrofluid is cooled due to
the heat transfer to the cold water inside the constant temperature
bath. Therefore, nanofluid inlet temperature to the tube can be con-
trolled by the thermal bath reservoir temperature.
2.2.2. Tube test section
The main part of the tube test section is a 2680 mm long straight alu-
minum tube with inner and outer diameters of 9.8 mm and 11.8 mm, re-
spectively. The tube has a heat transfer section of 2380 mm. The
100 mm entry and 200 mm exit lengths of the tube are unheated in
order to eliminate the end effects in the measurements. A constant
heat flux is provided by passing electric current through a 3 mm thick
flat-wire element. The heater is wounded on the entire tube surface
and is connected to an AC power supply through a variac. It does not
contain any ferric material to prevent the distortion of the inner
magnetic field in the tube. The tube and heater are insulated with low
thermal conductivity elastomeric foam of 10 mm thickness. Two
polyurethane bushings are lathed and placed on the inlet and outlet of
the aluminum tube to diminish the heat flow in the axial direction. A
small mixing chamber is located at the exit of the heat transfer
section for the purpose of the accurate measurement of fluid exit
temperature.
The surface temperature of the tube at the heat transfer section is
measured by 20 thermocouples coated with a compound of copper
powder and thermal paste. The thermocouples are installed on the
aluminum tube surface with an equal spacing of 125 mm. Also, locat-
ed in the inlet and outlet of the test section are two K-type thermo-
couples to measure the inlet and exit temperatures of the fluid. All
the thermocouples used in this study are calibrated and the uncer-
tainty of the temperature measurement is estimated to be less than
1%. The thermocouples are connected to two data connected to a
PC such that all the temperature values can be monitored and re-
corded simultaneously.
2.2.3. Magnetic field generation and control system
The magnetic field generation system includes four electromagnets,
a high voltage DC power supply, a signal generator and an oscilloscope,
as shown in Fig. 3(a). Four electromagnets are used to generate the
magnetic field. The first one is located below the tube at the distance
x = 1625 mm from the tube entrance and the other three electromag-
nets are placed in a staggered configuration with equal distances of
30 mm from each other. Dimensions of the electromagnets are shown
in Fig. 3(b).
Each electromagnet consists of a U core and two copper windings.
The core material is made of electrically insulated iron powder and al-
ternatively iron alloys with low hysteresis and a high saturation flux
density, which is required for producing an alternating magnetic field.
The windings have N = 3000 turns of 0.5 mm diameter copper wire
with a total electric resistance of 35Ω.
An eight-channel DC power supply with variable voltage of 0–90 V
has been designed to provide the required current density in all the
eight windings of the electromagnets.
260 M. Goharkhah et al. / Powder Technology 274 (2015) 258–267

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup.

The DC power supply is connected to a signal generator which is de- Teslameter has been used to measure the magnetic field strength during
signed to produce the alternating magnetic field with specific frequency the experiments.
and phase shift. It converts the input DC current to rectangular pulses
for driving the windings. With the help of its microcontroller, the digital 3. Data processing
circuit of the signal generator has the ability to adjust the frequency of
the pulses and their relative phase shifts. An oscilloscope is used to The local convection heat transfer coefficient on the tube surface is
monitor the wave form of the generated pulses. Furthermore, a HT201 calculated from:

q}
hðxÞ ¼ ð1Þ
T s ðxÞ−T m ðxÞ

where q" is the imposed constant heat flux to the aluminum tube and
Ts(x) and Tm(x) are the surface and bulk fluid temperatures, respective-
ly. Ts(x) is measured at 20 equally spaced points on the heat transfer sec-
tion of the tube surface. Through the energy balance, Tm(x) is calculated
from:

qx
T m ðxÞ ¼  þ T mi ð2Þ
L m Cp

where L is the length of heated section of the tube, ṁ is the mass flow
rate, q is the total heat flow and Tmi is the inlet temperature of the
fluid. The surface heat flux has been calculated from the net heat trans-
fer to the fluid using the following equation:

} m C p ðT mi −T m0 Þ
q ¼ ð3Þ
A

The heat flux can also be calculated from the total electric power
transferred to the aluminum tube divided by the surface area as follows:

} VI
q ¼ ð4Þ
A

where V and I are electric voltage and current, respectively, and A is the
surface area of the tube.
Fig. 3. (a) Magnetic field generation and control system; (b) dimensions of the A maximum discrepancy of 8% is observed between the two values
electromagnets. which is mainly due to the heat leaks through the insulations.
 M. Goharkhah et al. / Powder Technology 274 (2015) 258–267 261

Table 1 The following equations have been used for calculation of nanofluid
Uncertainty of the measured parameters. bulk density and specific heat [20].
Quantity Uncertainty

T(∘C ) 0.1 ρn f ¼ φρp þ ð1−φÞρ f ð9Þ

Voltage(V) 0.01
Current(I) 0.001
φρp cp;p þ ð1−φÞρ f cp; f
L(m) 5 × 10−5 cp;n f ¼ ð10Þ
ρn f

Finally, using the obtained local convection heat transfer coefficients, where ρp is the particle density, ρf is the base fluid density and cp,p and
the average value is calculated from: cp,f are the particle and the base fluid specific heats, respectively.
Z The viscosity and thermal conductivity of the ferrofluid samples
L
1 at different volume fractions of φ = 1, 1.5 and 2 % have been
havg ¼ hðxÞdx ð5Þ
L measured by a viscometer (Antoon Paar Lovis 2000 M) and a KD2
0
pro device (Decagon Devices Inc.) for the temperature range of
4. Uncertainty analysis 20 − 600C.
In order to verify the accuracy of the transport properties measure-
Uncertainty of the experimental data may originate from the measur- ments, primary tests have been carried out for DI-water and the results
ing errors of quantities such as heat flux or temperature. The uncertainty have been compared with that of Incropera [21]. Viscosity and thermal
of the local convection heat transfer coefficient is calculated as follows: conductivity of the DI-water are shown in Fig. 4.
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi Fig. 4 indicates the reliability of the data obtained from the measure-
   2  2 ments. Maximum deviations of 2.9% and 1.89% from the experimental
∂h } 2 ∂h ∂h
δh ¼ }
δq þ δT s þ δT m ð6Þ results of ref. [21] have been obtained for the thermal conductivity
∂q ∂T s ∂T m
and viscosity, respectively.
Then,
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 } 2  2  2
δh δq δT w ∂T m
¼ }
þ þ δT m ð7Þ
h q T s −T m T s −T m

The uncertainties of the measurements in the present study are

summarized in Table 1.
Uncertainty values have been calculated for all the measured cases.
The average uncertainty in calculation of local convection heat transfer
coefficient is ± 3.2 %.

5. Thermophysical properties of the ferrofluid

The volume concentration of the samples are obtained by:

mp
ρp
φ¼ m mf ð8Þ
p
þ
ρp ρf

Fig. 4. Measured values of DI-water thermal conductivity and viscosity in comparison with Fig. 5. Variation of the measured ferrofluid (a) viscosity and (b) thermal conductivity with
data of Incropera and Dewitt [21]. concentration and temperature.
262 M. Goharkhah et al. / Powder Technology 274 (2015) 258–267

Measurements of nanofluid viscosity and thermal conductivity for Note also a large magnetic flux density gradient near the electro-
different concentration at various temperatures are shown in Figs. 5(a), magnet tips. Thus, large magnetic forces are expected in these regions.
(b), respectively. The magnetic force can be calculated from the magnetic flux density dis-
As shown, the dependence of nanofluid viscosity on temperature is tribution as follows [22,23]:
significant for all the concentrations. Decrease of nanofluid viscosity is
due to the decrease of the base fluid (DI-water) viscosity with temper- * χi * *
FM ¼ Vp B∇B ð11Þ
ature. Moreover, it is clear from Fig. 5(b) that the thermal conductivity μ0
increases with both temperature and concentration. The thermal con-
*
ductivity ratio of the ferrofluid to the DI-water increases from 10% to a where Vp is the nanoparticle volume and χi, μ0, and B are the magnetic
maximum of 16% at volume fraction of 2% as the temperature increases susceptibility of the magnetite nanoparticle, magnetic permeability of
from 20 to 60oC. This is due to the increasing Brownian motion of the free space, and magnetic flux density, respectively. Fig. 7 shows the cal-
nanoparticles at higher temperatures. culated x and z components of the magnetic force across the tube
centerline.
6. Magnetic field simulation Equation of motion for a single magnetic nanoparticle can be written
as follows:
Distributions of the magnetic field and the resulting Kelvin's mag-
netic body force for the given configuration of the electromagnets d2r * * *
have been simulated using COMSOL. Fig. 6(a) illustrates the magnetic m ¼ F M þ F Hydro þ m g ð12Þ
dt 2
flux density distribution B in the xz-plane obtained for an electric cur-
rent of I = 2A in the copper windings. Where, x is measured from the *
where r is the position vector of the particle and the first and second
tube inlet. Furthermore, the horizontal and vertical components (Bx,
terms are the magnetic and hydrodynamic drag forces, respectively.
Bz) and the magnitude of the magnetic flux density (B) along the tube
The opposing Stokes drag force on a spherical particle is given by:
centerline are plotted in Fig. 6(b).
Fig. 6(a) shows that the maximum magnetic field intensity exists *
near the tips of the electromagnets. As a result, the magnetic flux densi- F Hydro ¼ 6πμr p V r ð13Þ
ty B, has eight peaks of 700 G along the tube centerline, as shown in
Fig. 6(b). It can also be inferred from Fig. 6(b) that Bz has an alternating. where μ is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid, rp radius of a nanoparticle.
This is due to the opposite direction of the electric current in the wind- Vr is the relative velocity between the nanoparticle and the fluid with an
ings of each electromagnet. order of magnitude of 0.1m/s.

Fig. 6. (a) Magnetic flux density distribution in longitudinal plane; (b) variation of the magnitude of the magnetic flux density B and its horizontal and vertical components along the tube
centerline.
 M. Goharkhah et al. / Powder Technology 274 (2015) 258–267 263

found almost identical within the measurement uncertainties. It should

also be noted that the data are recorded in the steady state condition for
all the experiments. Depending on the fluid flow rate, the steady state is
reached after 20–60 min. At the steady state condition, the surface tem-
peratures remain unchanged for the cases of constant and no magnetic
field. But, they change periodically under the alternating magnetic field.
In order to verify the correct functioning of the experimental appara-
tus, the local convective heat transfer coefficients have been obtained
for DI-water flow in the tube at two different Reynolds numbers of
400 and 1200. The results have been compared with the predictions of
the well-known Shah equation [24] for laminar flow under the constant
heat flux boundary condition, as shown in Fig. 8, where D is the tube in-
ternal diameter.
Fig. 8 indicates that there is a good agreement between the local con-
vective heat transfer coefficient values obtained from current measure-
ments and predicted by Shah equation for DI-water flow in the tube.
Surface temperatures are recorded at 20 equally spaced locations on
the heat transfer section of the tube and used to calculate the local con-
vective heat transfer coefficients at both thermally developing and fully
Fig. 7. Magnetic body force components on the tube centerline.
developed regions. Variations of the local heat transfer coefficient for

Calculation of the hydrodynamic and gravity forces in Eq. 12 and

comparison of them with the components of the magnetic force
shown in Fig. 7 reveal that the magnetic force is dominant around the
electromagnets. Thus, the x-component of the magnetic force can
drive the magnetic nanoparticles towards the electromagnet tips as
the ferrofluid flows. It is also shown that the z-component of the mag-
netic force is much larger than the x-component. This means that the
magnetic particles can be attracted towards the tube surface at the elec-
tromagnets positions.

7. Results and discussion

Magnetite ferrofluid with volume fractions of φ = 1, 1.5 and 2 % is

prepared and used in the tests separately. Experiments are conducted
for five different Reynolds numbers in the laminar flow range of 400–
1200. The surface temperatures and local convective coefficients are
measured under the influence of both constant and alternating (at the
frequency of f = 5 Hz) magnetic field with intensities of B = 300 G
and 500 G. Some test cases have been conducted 3 times to check the re-
peatability of the experiments. The measured temperatures have been

Fig. 8. Measured values of local convective heat transfer coefficient for DI-water flow in Fig. 9. Variations of local convective heat transfer coefficient along the tube for different
the channel compared with the predictions of Shah [23]. concentrations at (a) Re = 400 and (b) Re = 1200.
264 M. Goharkhah et al. / Powder Technology 274 (2015) 258–267
Fig. 10. Average convective heat transfer coefficient as a function of the Reynolds number
for different ferrofluid concentrations.
ferrofluid flow at different volume fractions along with the data of DI-
water at Re = 400 and 1200 are plotted in Fig. 9(a), (b), respectively.
As shown in Fig. 9, the local heat transfer coefficient decreases in the
thermal entrance length of the tube due to the growth of thermal
boundary layer. Then, it reaches almost a constant value at the fully de-
veloped region. It can also be observed that the thermal entrance length
increases noticeably with the Reynolds number.
The average heat transfer coefficients have been calculated for all the
cases by integrating the local values over the tube length. Fig. 10 shows
the average heat transfer coefficient as a function of the Reynolds num-
ber for different ferrofluid concentration.
As Fig. 10 shows, using magnetite nanofluid increases the convective
heat transfer. It can be inferred that increasing the volume concentra-
tion of nanoparticles leads to improvement of the convective heat trans-
fer. At the Reynolds number of 1200 and φ = 1, a heat transfer
enhancement of 8.3% has been obtained compared to the DI-water.
This value grows up to 13.5% for φ = 2.
Four electromagnets are used to impose an external magnetic field
on the ferrofluid, as described in Section 2.2.3. The effect of a constant
magnetic field with intensities of B = 300 G and 500 G on the tube
Fig. 11. Effect a constant magnetic field on the tube surface temperature.
surface temperature for the ferrofluid flow with φ = 2 and Re = 600
along with the data of DI-water is depicted in Fig. 11.
As shown, use of the ferrofluid decreases the surface temperature
compared to the case of DI-water. Moreover, application of a constant
magnetic field improves the cooling performance of the ferrofluid.
However, a slight decrease of the surface temperature is observed
when the magnetic field intensity is increased from 300 G to 500 G.
In Fig. 12, the local convective heat transfer coefficients obtained ex-
perimentally under the external magnetic fields of 300 G and 500 G are
compared with the cases of no magnetic field and DI water for φ = 2
and Re = 600.
As shown, the curves plotted for ferrofluid diverge at the locations of
the electromagnets. The local convective heat transfer is shown to be in-
creased due to the external magnetic field. The highest values of the
local convective coefficients are obtained for B = 500 G.
Generally speaking, forced convective heat transfer can be enhanced
in two ways, i.e., by increasing fluid thermal conductivity and by de-
creasing thermal boundary layer thickness. When the ferrofluid passes
over the electromagnets, the magnetic nanoparticles are attracted to
the tube surface due to the magnetic force distribution shown in
Fig. 7. The migration of the nanoparticles to the tube surface leads to a
higher local particle concentration and consequentially to a larger
local thermal conductivity. Moreover, the particles form doublets, trip-
lets, and short chains in the direction of external magnetic field which
leads to enhanced thermal conductivity [6]. On the other hand, aggrega-
tion of the particles near the tube surface acts like an obstacle that dis-
turbs the flow pattern and the thermal boundary layer and makes the
flow turbulent. This results in a further increase of the local convective
heat transfer.
The alternating magnetic field is generated by applying rectangular
pulses to the electromagnets with equal on and off duration of 0.1 s.
The period of the alternating magnetic field function, T, is defined as
the sum of the on and off duration. Obviously, the frequency, f, is
equal to 1/T. For the same Reynolds numbers and volume fractions,
the convective coefficients have been measured under the influence of
an alternating magnetic field with two different intensities of B = 300
and 500 G, at a constant frequency of f = 5 Hz (equivalent to T = 0.2 s).
The tube surface temperature and the corresponding local convec-
tive coefficients for the ferrofluid flow at Re = 600 and φ = 2 under
Fig. 12. Effect of a constant magnetic field on the local convective heat transfer coefficient
along the tube length for φ = 2 and Re = 600.
 M. Goharkhah et al. / Powder Technology 274 (2015) 258–267 265

attraction and releasing of nanoparticles occur along the tube repeated-

ly, resulting in better mixing, the thermal boundary layer disturbance,
and enhancement of the forced convection heat transfer. Another
point worth mentioning is the fluctuations of the convective heat trans-
fer coefficient and unequal enhancement values at locations of the elec-
tromagnets. This can be justified by considering the magnetic field
distribution and force acting on the nanoparticles. As shown previously
in Fig. 7, the magnetic field generated by the electromagnets results in a
non-uniform force distribution in the axial direction. This results in dif-
ferent migration rates and aggregation sizes of the nanoparticles and
consequently different enhancement values along the tube.
The effects of the constant and alternating magnetic fields on the av-
erage heat transfer coefficients are shown in Figs. 15(a), (b) for volume
fractions of φ = 1 and φ = 2, respectively.
As shown in the Fig. 15, the average heat transfer coefficient in-
creases with magnetic field intensity. Also, application of an alternating
magnetic field is shown to have a significant effect on the heat transfer.
At Re = 1200 and φ = 2, the average heat transfer is increased from
434.4 to 454.9 by a constant magnetic field with a strength of B =
500 G. This value is increased up to 502.5 by an alternating magnetic
field with the same magnitude at f = 5 Hz.
Heat transfer enhancement due to the use of ferrofluid can be de-
h
fined as η ¼ have;n f , where have,nf and have,bf are the average heat transfer
ave;b f

Fig. 13. Effect of an alternating magnetic field on the tube surface temperature. coefficients for the nanofluid and base fluid, respectively. The effects

the alternating magnetic field of B = 500 G, f = 5 Hz has been compared

with the case of constant magnetic field, no magnetic field, and DI water
in Figs. 13 and 14, respectively.
It can be inferred from Fig. 13 that the surface temperature can be
decreased considerably by applying an alternating magnetic field
when compared to the case of constant magnetic field.
Fig. 14 shows the significant increase of the convective heat transfer
at the locations of the alternating magnetic field. The possible mecha-
nism of the heat transfer can be explained as follows. In each cycle,
when the electromagnets turn on, the nanoparticles are attracted to
the heated surface of the tube. Thus, heat can be transferred to the nano-
particles. Next, the heated particles are released and heat is transferred
to the bulk flow at the disconnection time of the electromagnets. The

Fig. 14. Effect of an alternating magnetic field on the local convective heat transfer coeffi- Fig. 15. Effects of constant and alternating magnetic fields on the average heat transfer co-
cient along the tube length for φ = 2 and Re = 600. efficient for (a) φ = 1 and (b) φ = 2.
266 M. Goharkhah et al. / Powder Technology 274 (2015) 258–267

of the constant and alternating magnetic field on the heat transfer en-
hancement are shown in Figs. 16(a), (b) and (c) for concentrations of
φ = 1, 1.5 and 2, respectively.
As Fig. 16 shows, the heat transfer enhancement increases with the
Reynolds number. This can be explained by the possible increase in
the flow mixing due to the formation of the magnetic aggregates in
proximity of the electromagnets. The increase of the heat transfer
with the nanoparticle volume fraction can also be justified considering
the mechanism described previously. The amount of the accumulated
particles near the tube walls increases with the increase of the volume
fraction. This leads to higher local thermal conductivity near the electro-
magnets. Moreover, further magnetic nanoparticles participate in the
disruption of the thermal boundary layer.
It should also be noted that the thermal entry length grows with the
Reynolds number and covers the entire tube length at high Reynolds
numbers of Re = 1000 and 1200. Therefore, the increase of the heat
transfer enhancement with Reynolds number implies that the effect of
magnetic field is more pronounced at the thermally developing region.

8. Conclusion

Laminar forced convection of magnetite ferrofluid in a heated tube

under the influence of constant and alternating magnetic field has
been studied experimentally. The effects of Reynolds number, volume
fraction and magnetic field intensity have been investigated. The fol-
lowing results have been obtained.

• A maximum convective heat transfer enhancement of 13.5% is obtain-

ed in the absence of magnetic field at Re = 1200 and φ = 2 %.
• The heat transfer enhancement is increased significantly up to 18.9%
and 31.4% by application of constant and alternating magnetic field,
respectively.
• The heat transfer enhancement is shown to have a direct relation with
nanofluid concentration, Reynolds number, and the intensity of the
magnetic field.
• The effect of magnetic field is more pronounced at the thermally de-
veloping region.
• Heat transfer enhancement under the influence of a constant magnet-
ic field is attributed to the migration of the nanoparticles to the tube
surface which leads to an increase in local particle concentration and
consecutively the local thermal conductivity.
• In the presence of an alternating magnetic field, periodic attraction of
the cold fluid to the heated surface and release of it to the bulk flow
possibly disturb the thermal boundary layer, improve the flow mixing
and increase heat transfer as a result.

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