Numerical and experimental analysis of performance in a compact plate heat exchanger using graphene oxide/water nanofluid

This study aims to present the experimental and computational performance analysis in compact plate heat exchanger (PHE) using graphene oxide nanofluids at different concentrations and flow rate.

Field emission scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction were used to characterize graphene oxide nanoparticles. The nanofluid samples were prepared by varying volume concentration. Zeta potential test was done to check stability of samples. The thermophysical properties of samples have been experimentally measured. The experimental setup of PHE with 60° chevron angle has also been developed. The numerical analysis is done using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model having similar geometry as of the actual plate. Distilled water at fixed temperature and flow rate is used in hot side tank. Nanofluid at fixed temperature with varying concentration and flow rate is used in cold side tank as coolant.

The numerical and experimental results were compared and found that both results were in good agreement. The results showed ∼13% improvement in thermal conductivity, ∼14% heat transfer rate (HTR), ∼9% in effectiveness and ∼10% in overall heat transfer coefficient at cost of pressure drop and pumping power using nanofluid. Exergy loss also decreased using nanofluid at optimum concentration of 1 Vol.%.

The CFD model can be significant to analyze temperature, pressure and flow distribution in heat exchanger which is impossible otherwise. This study gives ease to predict PHE performance with high accuracy without performing the experiment.