THERMAL PROPERTIES AND CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER PERFORMANCE OF SOLID-LIQUID PHASE CHANGING PARAFFIN NANOFLUIDSWe aim to combine these two concepts for the first time by studying fluids containing nano-sized phase changing particles. In this study, the convective heat transfer performance and the thermal properties of solidliquid phase changing paraffin nanofluids are experimentally examined. Three water-based paraffin nanofluids with particle mass fractions of 5-10% are prepared and measured with an annular tube heat exchanger. The heat transfer measurements cover both laminar and turbulent regimes with Reynolds numbers varying in the range of 700-11000. The measurements also include pressure losses in order to study the suitability of the fluids for practical forced convection applications. In addition, the fluids are characterized: latent heats, specific heats, viscosities, thermal conductivities, densities and particle size distributions are all determined experimentally. In agreement with previous studies, the nanofluids are found to exhibit Nusselt numbers clearly higher than water when compared on the basis of equal Reynolds numbers. However, the differences in Prandtl numbers are shown to explain these deviations in Nusselt numbers. Indeed, the well-known Gnielinski correlation is able to explain the results quite adequately and thus, significant anomalies in the convection heat transfer caused by neither the melting of the phase change material nor the presence of the nanoparticles are observed. However, the nanofluids have systematically slightly higher Nusselt numbers than the correlation would predict, but the deviations are within the accuracy of the correlation (10%). When compared by using equal pumping powers, the nanofluids exhibit heat transfer performance poorer than that of water. The positive impact of the latent heat is outweighed by the negative effects of the increased viscosity and decreased specific heat.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.