Ethylene glycol (EG)‑based nanofluids as a coolant for automotive radiator

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Date
2016
Authors
Mutuku, W.N.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BioMed Central Ltd
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.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Nanofluid, Coolant, Convective heating, Radiator
Citation
Asia Pacific Journal on Computational Engineering Mutuku Asia Pac. J. Comput. Engin. (2016) 3:1; DOI 10.1186/s40540-016-0017-3