Study of laminar convective heat transfer,

friction factor and pumping power

advantage of Al2O3-water nanofluid through
a channel
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 2121, 070015 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5115922
Published Online: 18 July 2019

Md Insiat Islam Rabby, Md. Ehsanul Hasan, Abdullah Al Amin, and A. K. M. Sadrul Islam

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© 2019 Author(s).
Study of Laminar Convective Heat transfer, Friction Factor
and Pumping Power Advantage of Al2O3-Water Nanofluid
through a Channel
Md Insiat Islam Rabby1,a), Md. Ehsanul Hasan1, b), Abdullah Al Amin1, c) and
A.K.M. Sadrul Islam1, d)
1
Mechanical Engineering Department, MIST, Dhaka, Bangladesh
a)
insiatislam8@gmail.com
b)
ehsanul.hasan72@gmail.com
c)
shatue107@gmail.com
d)
sadrul05@gmail.com

Abstract. A numerical analysis of laminar convective heat transfer of aluminum oxide (Al2O3)-water Nanofluid for the
developed region through two parallel plates are presented in this present work. The second order single phase energy
equation, mass and momentum equation are solved by using finite volume method with the ANSYS FLUENT 16
software. The distance between two parallel plates is 4mm and length is 600mm. The study is done for a water based
nanofluid with 1% to 5% volume concentration of Al2O3 for a range of Reynolds number of 500 to 1100 at constant heat
flux 500 W/m2 at the channel walls. The result revels that for increasing the Reynolds number the Nusselt number and
heat transfer coefficient are increased linearly and friction factor decreased linearly in the developed region for both
water and Al2O3-H2O nanofluid. By increasing the volume fraction of Al2O3-H2O nanofluid from 1% to 5% the value of
Nusselt number increased rapidly from 0.7% to 7.32%, heat transfer coefficient increased 7.14% to 31.5% and friction
factor increased very little from 0.1% to 4% for constant Reynolds number compared to pure water. At constant heat
transfer coefficient 700 W/m2-K the pumping power advantages has been achieved 20% for 1% volume concentration
and 62% for 3% volume concentration of nanofluid compared to pure water.

INTRODUCTION
Recently using of Nanotechnology is the most popular and beneficial to the researchers and industrial sector.
Everyday researchers investigate with Nanotechnology to apply it at different sector and get more advantage from it.
Nanotechnology is also used at the application of heat transfer enhancement. The heat transfer rate is increased by
using of small amount of solid particles with working fluids. The small amount of solid nanoparticles increases the
thermal conductivity, viscosity, density etc thermodynamics properties of working fluids that’s why the heat transfer
rate is also became more .And this mixture of nanoparlicles of specific materials such as metals, oxides, nanotubes
etc with working fluids such as water, oil, ethylene glycol and glycerin is introduced as nanofluid. So by adding
small amount of solid particles with the base or working fluid, the thermal conductivity of the fluid can be increased
noticeably. And by using these concept researchers has been made nanofluid which is the combination of base fluid
(water, engine oil or ethylene glycol) and very small amount of solid particles at Nano scale size (1nm to100nm).
Al2O3, CuO, TiO2, SiC, SiO2, Fe2O3, MgO etc. particles are used as nanoparticles to mix with base fluids. Different
researchers carried out their investigation on nanofluids. Xuan and Li, 2003[1] examined the convective heat
exchange and the stream highlights of Cu– water Nano fluids in a 10-mm inward distance across tube. The trial
comes about because of their investigation in the turbulent area showed that the friction factors of the Nanofluids,
between 1 and 2% volume fractions are generally the same as those of water flow. Mohammed et al. [2] numerically
investigated the effect of four nanofluids (containing Al 2O3, SiO2, Ag, and TiO2, respectively) flowing on parallel

8th BSME International Conference on Thermal Engineering

AIP Conf. Proc. 2121, 070015-1–070015-8; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5115922
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1861-5/$30.00

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square and rectangular micro channel heat exchangers. The results showed that with an increase in the Reynolds
number, the heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid increased, whereas the average bulk temperature of the cold
fluid decreased. The augmentation of the heat transfer coefficient of water-based Al2O3 nanofluids is much larger
than that of effective thermal conductivity predicted by Koo, J.; K leinstreuer, C. [3]. In addition to increased
thermal conductivity, other mechanisms, such as viscosity change, thinner thermal boundary layer, random
movement and migration of nanoparticles, vitality exchange by nanoparticle scattering, might be in charge of the
heat exchange improvement of nanofluids. Santa and Sen [4] worked on copper–water nanofluid through two
isothermally heated parallel plates and they find that the rate of heat transfer increases with the increase in flow as
well as increase in solid volume fraction of the nanofluid. Williams et al., 2008 [5] experimentally explored the
turbulent stream of alumina– water and zirconia– water Nano fluids in tubes. They found that current connections
for single-stage stream can enough anticipate Nano fluid stream convective heat exchange and weight drop. Rea et
al., 2009[6] led an investigation on the laminar convective warmth exchange and weight drop of alumina– water and
zirconia– water Nano fluids in a tube with 4.5-mm inward width. Their discoveries demonstrated that, with
appropriately measured Nano fluid properties, there is no deviation in convective heat exchange and weight drop of
Nano fluid spill out of customary single-stage stream hypothesis. Heris et al.,2013 [7] played out an exploratory
investigation to decide the pressure drop and heat exchange qualities of Al 2O3/water and CuO/water nanofluids in a
triangular conduit under consistent heat flux where the flow was laminar. Their outcomes demonstrated that, at
similar estimations of nanoparticle volume division and Reynolds number, utilizing Al 2O3 nanoparticles is more
beneficial than CuO nanoparticles. Wen and Ding, 2004 [8] also investigate with laminar convective heat transfer
using Al2O3 nanofluid. M. Izadi, D. Jalali [10] also studied on developing laminar convective heat transfer by using
Al2O3/water nanofluid and they showed that the velocity profile is not change significantly with the change of
volume concentration of nanofluid but temperature profile change with volume concentration and also convective
heat transfer coefficient increases with volume concentration. D. L. Ulrichson and R. A, Schmitz [11] worked on
laminar heat transfer of developing region of a circular tube and investigated that the effect of the radial velocity is
to cause a significant decrease in the calculated local Nusselt number in the entrance region from that obtained . M.
Monjur and A.K.M [12] investigated on energy savings of heat exchanger and they showed that for constant heat
transfer coefficient Al2O3-water, CuO-water and TiO2-water required less pumping power and volumetric flow rate
compare to pure water. P.A. Ingole, S.M. Shinde and P.A. Patil [13] investigated on pumping power of car radiator
by using Al2O3 -water nanofluid and they find that 2% volume concentration Al 2O3-water need 23.81% less
pumping power compared to pure water.
From the above literature review it is clear that almost all the researches are discussed on heat transfer
enchantment argumentation of nanofluid but the justification of implementing nanofluid in terms of increased
pumping power due to the improvement of thermo-physical properties has not been studied elaborately. And so the
present work focus on how Al2O3-water nanofluid influences the pumping power, friction factor beside heat transfer
rate of laminar convective channel flow.

PHYSICAL MODEL AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

Parallel plates with a steady heat flux connected on its surface can be considered as the least difficult case to
investigate heat transfer rate and corresponding pumping power requirement. In order to investigate the performance
of Nanofluid in a channel, a numerical study has been carried out by employing commercial computational fluid
dynamics software ANSYS Fluent.

FIGURE 1. Physical model of the numerical problem and the corresponding mesh of the domain.

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 The distance between two horizontal plates is 4mm and length is 600 mm length. A constant uniform heat flux of
500 W/m2 is applied on the wall boundary of the parallel plates and fluid is permitted to stream with a fitting speed
and uniform temperature of 303 K at the inlet of the parallel plates with a presumption of no slip condition on the
parallel plate’s wall are considered. All the fluid dynamic and heat exchange parameters are extricated after the
hydrodynamic and thermal improvement of the fluid stream and in this case the entrance length is x/D=60 beyond
which all the measurements are taken. For calculating the heat transfer enhancement and friction factor the
temperatures are taken at line which is situated 590mm from inlet and pressures are taken at lines which are situated
from 565mm and 555mm from the inlet.

Numerical Method
We use a commercial computational fluid dynamics software ANSYS (Fluent) for this numerical analysis. All
the governing equations for mass, momentum, energy, and laminar quantities are solved using a control volume
technique. At inlet laminar inlet velocity and at the outlet boundary pressure outlet is considered. Under relaxation
factors 0.4 for pressure, 0.76 for momentum equation, 1for energy equation, and 0.9 for density equation are
considered for parallel plate. Al2O3-water nanofluids with different particle volume fractions (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5%) are
tested with a wide range of Reynolds number (400-1100 for parallel plate) and then results are compared with base
fluid water.

METHODOLOGY

Governing Equation

The governing equation for continuity, momentum and energy for forced convection under laminar flow and steady-
state conditions are expressed as follows:

Continuity equation

In steady flow, the amount of mass within the control volume under remains constant, and thus the conversation
𝜕𝑢 𝜕𝑣
of mass can be expressed as . + =0 (1)
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦

Momentum equation

For laminar flow, the momentum equation can be expressed as:

𝜕𝑢 𝜕𝑢 𝜕2𝑢
𝜌 𝑢 +𝑣 =𝜇 (2)
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑦 2

Energy Equation

Energy can be transferred by heat, work, and mass only, the energy balance for a steady-flow control volume can
𝑑2𝑇 𝑑2𝑇 𝑑2𝑇 𝑑2𝑇
be write explicitly as (Ein- Eout) = 𝑘 𝑑𝑥𝑑𝑦 + 𝑘 𝑑𝑥𝑑𝑦= 𝑘 + 𝑑𝑥𝑑𝑦 (3)
𝜕𝑥 2 𝜕𝑦 2 𝜕𝑥 2 𝜕𝑦 2

Thermal and fluid dynamics Properties

𝜌 𝑛𝑓 𝑈𝑎𝑣 𝐷 ℎ
The Reynolds number for the flow of Nano fluid is expressed as: 𝑅𝑒 = 4
𝜇 𝑛𝑓
The rate of heat transfer Qnf to the tube wall is assumed to be totally dissipated to Nano fluid flowing through a
circular tube, raising its temperature from inlet fluid bulk temperature T bi to exit fluid bulk temperature T bo. Thus,

𝑄𝑏𝑓 = 𝑚𝑛𝑓 𝐶𝑃𝑛𝑓 𝑇𝑏𝑜 − 𝑇𝑏𝑖 5

Where 𝑚𝑛𝑓 the mass flow rate of nanofluid is, 𝐶𝑝 𝑛𝑓 is the specific heat of Nano fluid at constant pressure.

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 𝑄𝑛𝑓
The average heat transfer coefficient ℎ𝑐 is given by: ℎ𝑐 = 6
𝐴𝑤 (∆𝑇)

Where 𝐴𝑤 is the surface area of circular tube and the temperature difference between the wall and calculated as

𝑇𝑤 −𝑇𝑜 − 𝑇𝑤 −𝑇𝑖 ,
∆𝑇 = 𝑇 𝑤 −𝑇 𝑜 7
ln
𝑇 𝑤 −𝑇 𝑖

ℎ 𝑐 𝐷ℎ
So the average Nusselt number is defined as: 𝑁𝑢 = 8
𝐾𝑛𝑓
𝑓𝐿𝜌 𝑈 2
Pressure difference: ∆𝑃 = 9
2𝐷 ℎ

64
Then, the Darcy friction factor, for laminar flow is: 𝑓= 10
𝑅𝑒

The pumping power per unit length in laminar flow is given by:

(𝜋/4)𝐷 2 𝑈𝑎𝑣 ∆𝑃
𝑊= (11)
𝐿

Thermal and fluid dynamics Properties of Nanofluids

Dynamic Viscosity

There are several equations for dynamic viscosity. Among them we use Maiga [14] equations for Al2O3. The
equation can be expressed as:
𝜇𝑛𝑓 = (1 + 7.3∅ + 123∅2 )𝜇𝑓 (12)

Thermal Conductivity

There are several thermal conductivity equations among them we use Pak and Cho [15] equation for Al2O3. The
following formulas are given by:
𝐾𝑛𝑓 = 𝐾𝑏𝑓 (1.0021 + 7.3349∅) (13)

Density

Using classical formulas derived for a two-phase mixture density (Xuan and Roetzel, 2000) [18] of the nanofluid as
can be computed using following equation:
𝜌𝑛𝑓 = 𝜌𝑝 ∅ + 𝜌𝑏𝑓 (1 − ∅) (14)

Specific Heat

Using classical formulas derived for a two-phase mixture, the specific heat capacity (Pak and Cho, 1998) [15]
of the nanofluid can be computed using following equation:

𝐶𝑛𝑓 = 1 − ∅ 𝐶𝑤 + ∅𝐶𝑝 (15)

CODE VALIDATION TEST

For parallel plate at uniform velocity and constant heat flux water is passed through it and a range of Reynolds
number of 400-1100 has been has been considered for calculating Nusselt numbers and a range of Reynolds number
400-1100 has been considerate for calculating friction factor. At fully developed zone the obtaining Nusselt number
is compared with the constant value of Nusselt number 8.23 at constant heat flux for parallel plate and with the

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Pahor and Turtor [19] theoretical equation which is shown in Figure 2. Pahor and Turton (1959) equation can also
be applied for laminar parallel plate at constant heat flux as follows:

3.79
𝑁𝑢 = 8.24 1 + 2 + ⋯ , 𝑃𝑒 ≫ 1 (16)
𝑃𝑒
𝑁𝑢 = 8.118 1 − 0.031𝑃𝑒 , 𝑃𝑒 ≪ 1 (17)

FIGURE 2. Comparison of Nusselt number between Pahor and Turton equation, constant Nusselt number at constant heat flux
for parallel plate and present work for different Reynolds number of water.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The figure 3(a) shows the effect of volume fraction and Reynolds number on the nusselt number for Al 2O3-water.
From the figure it has been obtained that the Nusselt number of the nanofluid used in the present work increases
with the increase in Reynolds number and Volume fraction of the nanofluid’s. A similar trend is also shown at
figure 4 for Nusselt number of nanofluid. Fig 3(b) indicates the pressure drop of nanofluids for different volume
fractions of different nanofluids. The figure signifies that with increase of Reynolds number pressure drop is also
increased. It is also observed that with increase of volume fraction for all the nanofluid, pressure drop is also
increased comparatively to pure water and a similar trend is investigated by Lin-wen Hu, 2009 [20] on pressure loss
of nanofluid. On the other hand the figure 4(a) shows the comparison of friction factor of different nanofluids with
pure water for different Reynolds number. From figure it has been observed that the friction factor of Al2O3-water is
little bit more than pure water. And by increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles the friction factor increases
very slightly 0.25% to 0.85% than the pure water. Rimbault B. et. al [21] have also investigated the convective heat
transfer for a given fluid flow rate, experimental results show an increase of the pressure drop and the friction factor
with respect to water along with slight heat transfer enhancement with respect to water for nanofluids with low
particle volume fractions, 0.24% and 1.03%, while for the 4.5% fraction a clear decrease of heat transfer was found.
Akhavan-Behabadi M.A.et.al. [22] has investigated the convective heat transfer of oil-copper oxide nanofluid flow
through a horizontal smooth and micro fin parallel plates experimentally and get same result. The figure 4(b)
represents the effect of volume fraction of nanofluids on heat transfer co-efficient for different Reynolds number.
From the figures it is observed that the value of heat transfer coefficient increases rapidly with the increase of
volume concentration and Reynolds number. This is due to the increases of the thermal conductivity and decreases
of the specific heat capacity of the nanofluids which increases the Nusselt number with higher velocity and
temperature gradient and this phenomenon increases the heat transfer coefficient gradually. From figure 5(a) it is
showed that with the increase in Reynolds number with respect to volume concentration the required pumping
power is also increasing both for water and nanofluid. And it is also observed from the figures that the Nano fluid
required more pumping power compared to pure water. At relatively lower Reynolds number the difference among
the values of pumping power per unit length for different volume fraction is comparatively smaller. The requirement
of pumping power is 16% to 72% for Al2O3-water compared to pure water for ϕ = 1% to 5% for Reynolds number

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400 to 1100.The figure 5(b) shows the variation of changing pumping power per unit length of nanofluids with
different values of heat transfer coefficient and volume concentration. From graphs it is seen that by increasing the
values of heat transfer coefficient, the pumping power becomes higher. But at constant heat transfer coefficient the
Al2O3-water nanofluids required less power compared to pure water and for ϕ = 1% to 5% the pumping power for
Al2O3-water nanofluids is reduced 20% to 75% compared to water for same heat transfer rate and this is the most
beneficial fact of using nanofluid.

(a) (b)
FIGURE 3: Comparison of (a) Nusselt number (b) Pressure drops with Reynolds number and different volume fraction of
Al2O3-water

(a) (b)
FIGURE 4: Comparison of (a) Friction Factor (b) Heat transfer coefficient with different Reynolds number and volume fraction
of Al2O3-water

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 (a) (b)
FIGURE 5. Comparison of Pumping Power per unit length with different volume fraction and different (a) Reynolds number and
(b) Heat transfer coefficient of Al2O3-water

CONCLUSION
In the present work Al2O3-water nanofluid has been analyzed through typical parallel plates to investigate the
heat transfer enhancement, the friction factor and pumping power advantage. The heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt
Number, friction factor and Pressure drop increase with the increment of volume fraction for the nanofluid as well as
with the Reynolds number compared to pure water. On the other hand at the same heat transfer coefficient the
required pumping power decreased 25% to 75% by increasing the volume fraction of Al 2O3-water 1% to 5%
compared to pure water. So to get more heat transfer coefficient and volumetric flow rate advantage use of Al2O3-
water nanofluid is best compared to pure water.

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