Publication

Abstract : An experimental study on overall heat transfer performance of an automobile radiator using Al2O3/water- propylene glycol nanofluids has been conducted. Enhancement of Heat transfer in a radiator leads to a compact radiator, which in turn increases fuel efficiency and thus decreases cost. Experimental setup was developed using an automobile radiator. The effect of overall heat transfer conductance (UA) of Propylene Glycol (PG) added to water in two different proportions (80:20 and 70:30) has been studied. In addition to that, experiments are also conducted using Al2O3/water-PG nanofluids. The nanofluid is prepared by addition of 0.1% and 0.2% Al2O3 nanoparticles to the 70:30 water-PG mixtures. The experiments have been conducted with a constant flow rate and with the temperatures varying form 70°C to 90°C. The study showed that there was an increase in overall heat conductance value with addition of nanoparticles to water-PG mixtures. With addition of 0.2 vol% of alumina particles there was an increase in UA by 9%. © Research India Publications.