Heat Transfer Characteristics of Plate Heat Exchanger with Bubble Fin Using Al₂O₃/Water Nanofluid: Numerical Investigation

Abstract

Plate heat exchangers (PHEs) are extensively used in energy transfer applications for their higher effectiveness and compact structure. Due to high pressure drop in corrugated PHEs, the situation appeared for modification in design of PHE. In the present study, the heat transfer performance of flat plate heat exchanger, bubble fin PHE and optimized bubble finned PHE are studied numerically using Al₂O₃/water nanofluid. The effect of mass flow rate and volume fraction on heat transfer coefficient (HTC), Nusselt number and pressure drop are investigated. Numerical simulations have been performed considering Reynolds number in between 600 and 2,000 under single-phase fluid flow. An enhancement of 15% and 107% in HTC and Nusselt number, respectively, is obtained for the finned PHE as compared to no-fin configuration. A maximum enhancement of 18% in Nusselt number has been obtained for Al₂O₃/water nanofluid as compared to base fluid. HTC increased with an increase in mass flow rate and volume concentration of nanofluid. The pressure drop in bubble fined heat exchanger is lower than corrugated PHEs. The pressure drop and pumping power increase with an increase in volume concentration.

Aknowledgements

We are thankful to the support of ICFAMMT 2022 Conference to giving us the opportunity for submitting the manuscript in Heat Transfer Engineering Journal.

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sandeep Kumar

Sandeep Kumar is a research scholar in the Mechanical Engineering Department at National Institute of Technology Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Government Engineering College, Sunder Nagar, Himachal Pradesh, India, in 2017. His research interests include numerical simulations, fluid flow and heat transfer through heat exchanger.

Sudhir Kumar Singh

Sudhir Kumar Singh is a research scholar in the Mechanical Engineering Department at National Institute of Technology Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from RTU Kota, Rajasthan, India, in 2011 and Master’s degree in Thermal Engineering from Thapar University Patiala, India, in 2018. He is currently working on pool boiling heat transfer enhancement using surface modifications.

Deepak Sharma

Deepak Sharma is working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at National Institute of Technology Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India. He received Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Silchar, Assam, India, in 2018. He received M.Tech degree from the same institute in the year of 2013 and Bachelor’s degree from GLA University, Mathura, U.P. in the year of 2010. Prior to joining NIT Hamirpur, during 2017–2018, he served as a contract faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at NIT Silchar for one year. His research interests include nanofluid heat transfer, boiling heat transfer, renewable energy, computational fluid dynamics, combustion, heat exchangers and thermal hydraulics in nuclear reactor.