Effects of Concentrations of Water‐Based MgO Nanofluid on Heat Transfer Performance in Shell‐and‐Tube Heat Exchanger

ABSTRACT The effects of concentration of water‐based MgO nanofluid on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of a shell‐and‐tube heat exchanger is modelled and numerically simulated by using five kinds of volume concentrations of 0%, 0.2%, 0.35%, 0.4%, and 0.5%. Validations for modelling and algorithm are performed by experiments with respect to the parameters of average heat transfer and overall heat transfer coefficient by means of distilled water‐based medium, which are in well line with measurement data. The overall heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number, pressure drop, friction factor, Prandtl number and performance evaluation criteria are predicted using commercial software Fluent 2020R2. Results showed that an increase in volume concentration of nanofluid enhance the heat transfer performances. Compared to water‐based medium, the peak values of the overall heat transfer coefficient and the Nusselt number are 14.52% and 13.02%, referring to the threshold of volume concentration of 0.35%.