Ethylene glycol (EG)‑based nanofluids as a coolant for automotive radiator
Abstract
In this paper, the cooling capabilities of an ethylene glycol (EG)-based nanofluid
containing three different types of nanoparticles: copper oxide (CuO), aluminium
oxide (Al2O3), and titanium dioxide (TiO2) are investigated. Nanofluids have enhanced
thermophysical properties, hence they can be used in a plethora mechanical and
engineering applications such as nanofluid coolant: electronics cooling, vehicle cooling,
transformer cooling, computers cooling and electronic devices cooling. A model
depicting the vertical fluid flow in a radiator is formulated. Using appropriate similarity
transformation and shooting quadrature coupled with Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg integration
scheme, the model boundary value problem is tackled numerically. A parametric
study of the entire flow regime is carried out to illustrate the effects of the pertinent
parameters on the velocity, temperature, skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt
number. It is clear that CuO–EG nanofluids lead to a rapid decrease of temperature at
the boundary layer.