Experimental study on the use of aluminum oxide and copper oxide nanoparticles to improve the thermal hydraulic performance of Peugeot 206 radiator

In this work, Nusselt number and friction factor in the tube side of car radiator which is a type of fin and tube heat exchanger are experimentally determined. Two types of nanofluids including water-Al2O3 and water-CuO are used and experimental results are performed for three nanoparticles volumetric concentration (PVC) and for Reynolds number in the range of 3000-15000. The results show that, both Nusselt number and friction factor increases in the case of nanofluid compared with the base fluid and this increase is higher in the CuO nanofluid. For example, at Re=3000, 1.92%, 15.08% and 22.46% improvement in Nusselt number are observed for Al2O3 nanofluid compared with base fluid respectively for PVC=0.025, 0.050 and 0.075. The mentioned improvement for CuO nanofluid are obtain 10.89%, 35.50% and 46.11%, respectively. In addition, at Re=3000, 15.27%, 9.64% and 13.80% increases in friction factor are observed for Al2O3 nanofluid compared with base fluid respectively for PVC=0.025, 0.050 and 0.075. The mentioned increases for CuO nanofluid are obtain 7.71%, 13.97% and 19.59%, respectively. Then, correlations for Nusselt number and friction factor with acceptable precision are derived.