COOLING PERFORMANCE OF AUTOMOBILE RADIATOR USING NANOFLUIDS CuO-WATER AND COMPARING IT WITH Al₂O₃- WATER

Abstract

Today it is a great challenge for automotive industries to provide an efficient and economical engine. Various systems like fuel supply system, lubrication system, transmission system, cooling system etc. affects the performance of an engine. Cooling system is one of the important system. It carries large amount of waste heat to surroundings for efficient working of an engine. Most of the I.C. engines are fluid cooled using either air or liquid coolant run through a heat exchanger(radiator)which is cooled by air. The heat transfer through radiator can be increased by increasing heat transfer area and maximising heat transfer coefficient. Heat transfer coefficient can be raised by improving thermo physical properties of the coolant. Water was widely used as a coolant in earlier days. Later ethylene glycol along with water was introduced as a coolant. The new generation of heat transfer fluids called NANO fluids have been developed with the advancement of nanotechnology. Researchers found that these fluids offer higher thermal conductivity compared to that of conventional coolants. So conventional coolants in engine cooling system can be replaced with Nano fluids. Nano
fluids are potential heat transfer fluids with enhanced thermo physical properties and heat transfer performance. So these Nano fluids can be used in automobile radiator for better performance. In the present study the cooling performance of CuO-Water nanofluid in an automobile radiator is to be studied and compared with Al₂O₃-Water nanofluid. Furthermore, the change in Nusselt number for different concentrations of nanoparticles is to be found and compared.