Performance Evaluation of Nanocoolants for Automotive Cooling Application

Abstract

As compared to base fluid, nanofluids exhibit a significant higher thermal property. It has been seen in the recent work that the heat exchange between the nanofluid and the heat source is greater than the traditional fluids and there is also a significant enhancement of the thermal conductivity. The use of nanofluid in the automobile radiator improves the heat transfer rate and eventually results in overall reduction in the size of the radiator. In this study, heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid is inspected experimentally as an automobile radiator coolant. The nanoparticle with the size <100 nm is selected. The experiments were conducted on titanium dioxide (TiO2) with deionised water as a base fluid. The thermos-physical properties such as specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity and viscosity of the nanofluid were measured experimentally. The samples of the nanofluid were prepared with weight concentration of TiO2 varied from 0.1%–0.25%wt using two-step method. The good stability is obtained by the Magnetic stirring and Sonication process with the sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) surfactant. Transient hot wire method is used for the measurement of the thermal conductivity of the nanofluid. The Zeta Potential test is used to determine the stability of the nanofluid. The experiments were conducted on various temperature ranges (50–90°C) to know the effect of coolant. The results were found that thermal conductivity of the samples was increased by 10% to 15 % for the different concentration (0.1%–0.25%wt) as compared to the conventional fluid like deionised water. The rate of flow of nanofluid was 2–3 litres/min. The nanoparticle and the surfactant were used in the equal ratio (1:1).