Flow and heat transfer behaviour of Al₂O₃-CUO/water hybrid nano-fluid in rectangular microchannels

Abstract

The present work was to analyse and report the flow and heat transfer behaviours of hybrid Al₂O₃-CUO/water nano-fluid through the rectangular microchannel. The rectangular microchannels were machined by Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) in AA6351/10 wt. % Rutile composite was fabricated through powder metallurgy route. Al₂O₃-CuO nano-fluids were produced by a two-step method varying the weight ratios as 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% and were characterised by FTIR and UV spectroscopy. The chemical composition, particle size and surface morphology of nano-powder used were analysed by SEM, XRD and EDS analysis and reported. The experiments were conducted by varying the mass flow rate from 0.016 to 0.025 L/s in the micro-channels of 1.2 × 10⁻³m of hydraulic diameter. For various mass flow rate, the Reynolds Number, Nusselt Number and heat transfer behaviour were reported. The heat transfer rate was increased by 6% followed by the Reynolds Number from 3000 to 5000 and Nusselt number from 60 to 100 for the 0.3% of the composition. The study confirms the enhancement of flow and heat transfer behaviours of hybrid nano-fluid in rectangular microchannels produced in the composite.

KEYWORDS:

• Nano-fluid
• aluminium composite
• microchannels
• mass flow
• heat transfer

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).