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Exergy Analysis in a Minichannel with Nanofluid

Jils John and S Jeseela

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July 15, 2021

 Exergy analysis in a minichannel with nanofluid
Jils John Dr. Jesseela .S
Department of Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor,
Govt. Engineering College, Kozhikode Department of Mechanical Engineering
Calicut, India Govt. Engineering College, Kozhikode
johnjilsjohn@gmail.com Calicut, India
jessyhamza@gmail.com

Abstract— Due to its better heat transfer properties and conventional channels, the temperature rises along the
compatibility, forced convection in minichannel might be one length of the channel limit the heat transfer capability and
of the most popular methods for the thermal management of has overcome by flow boiling in microchannels. Lazarek
electronic equipment. Using various approaches, the channel's and Black [3] investigated the heat transfer characteristics of
performance may be increased even more. The most obvious
method is to enhance the working fluid's thermophysical
flow in an evaporator of channel size 3.1mm using R-113 as
characteristics. This may be accomplished by substituting a the fluid. They obtained the sub-cooled and saturated data
nanofluid for the working fluid. Due to their unique properties along with the constant heat transfer coefficient in single-
of increased thermal conductivity, nanofluids perform better phase flow. But the heat transfer coefficient was found to be
than water. The optimum design of minichannel that gives independent of entry length. Dewan and Saivastava [4]
maximum possible heat transfer with minimum pressure drop reviewed heat transfer enhancement through flow disruption
can be performed by quantifying the thermodynamic losses in microchannels. It has been observed that the flow
through exergy analysis. In this work, experimental studies disruption techniques are effective for heat transfer
were performed in a single rectangular channel with a enhancement with lower penalties of increased pressure
hydraulic diameter of 591 μm and an aspect ratio of 0.135.
Nanofluid was prepared by dispersing Al2O3 nanoparticles in
drop. The Reynolds numbers were less than 600, and the
De-Ionised water. The single-phase flow experiments were flow remained firmly in the laminar flow regime. Dehghan
conducted and the exergy and heat transfer characteristics et al. [5] numerically studied heat transfer enhancement of
have been determined using nanofluid with varying micro channel using converging flow passages. They found
concentrations (0.01 vol % to 0.3 vol %) and compared the that when tapering increases, pumping power 8 decreases
results with that of base fluid (water). The output exergy, and Nusselt number increases. The optimum heat transfer
exergy efficiency, and exergy gain rise as the volume performance is found for a width–tapered ratio of 0.5. The
percentage of nanoparticles increases and decreases as the conventional theory was found to be able to predict the flow
mass flow rate increases. At a flow rate of 42.75 ml/min, the in microchannels channels. Adams et al. [6] experimentally
greatest exergy efficiency was determined to be 52.75 percent
for 0.3 vol. percent Al2O3–water nanofluid. At 0.3 vol. percent
investigated single-phase forced convective heat transfer
nanofluid, the highest exergy gain was discovered. The most characteristics in circular microchannels of hydraulic
critical characteristics that contribute to the exergy gain are diameter 760μm and 1090 μm, using water as the working
determined to be the output fluid temperature and pressure fluid. The deviation increased with increasing Re and
that are decrease through the micro channel. decreasing channel diameter, and the experimental Nusselt
number was substantially greater than that derived using
Keywords — Exergy, Minichannel, Nanofluid, pH, Hydraulic traditional correlations.
diameter, Volume fraction
Due to the presence of suspended nanoparticles with high
thermal conductivity, nanofluids outperform traditional
I. INTRODUCTION fluids in terms of thermal performance. Nanoparticles offer
The high heat-carrying capacity and compatibility make unique features that nanofluids potentially take use of, such
mini channels a more promising technology for thermal as a large surface area to volume ratio, dimension-dependent
management for electronic components. Due to the physical properties, and reduced kinetic energy. At the same
enhanced thermal characteristics of nanofluid, it is widely time, a greater surface area improves and stabilises
accepted as a working fluid in heat transfer devices. The nanoparticle dispersion in base fluids. Nanofluids have a
heat dissipation capacity of microchannels increases with a higher stability than microfluids. The notion of employing
decrease in hydraulic diameter. Electronic chip cooling metallic particles to enhance the thermal characteristics of
using a microchannel heat exchanger was first put forward fluids was first presented by Flockhart et al [7]. Mapa et al.
by Tuckerman and Pease [1]. They fabricated microchannels [8] investigated the impact of nanofluids in a small heat
with water as the working fluid on silicon chips and were exchanger. Their studies used water as the working fluid and
able to remove heat flux of 790 W/cm 2 without phase water and nanofluid with concentrations of 0.01 percent and
change with a penalty in pressure drop of 1.94 bar. They 0.02 percent volume to assess heat transfer performance in
found that channels with a dense package and large surface the heat exchanger. They came to the conclusion that
area to volume ratio have higher heat carrying capacity than nanofluids improve heat transmission and lower the
a conventional cooling device. Morini et al [2] carried out thickness of the thermal barrier layer. Garud et al. [9]
several types of research in single-phase microchannel heat examined the convective heat transfer of a CNT–water
exchangers. Although heat transferred in single-phase flow nanofluid in a micro-channel with a hydraulic diameter of
through microchannel is high when compared to 355 m and Reynolds numbers ranging from 2 to 17 for
particle concentrations of 1.1 to 4.4 percent in a micro- PT1000-2). The channel bottom surface temperature was
channel with a hydraulic diameter of 355 m. At the measured using three K-type (Chromic/Alumel) mineral
maximum concentration, the CNT–water nanofluid had a insulated thermocouples placed at holes drilled 2.5 mm
higher heat transfer coefficient. below the channel bottom surface. Inlet and outlet fluid
temperatures were measured by two thermocouples placed
Heat transfer analysis is the most common way to describe at the inlet and outlet plenum of the PTFE housing. The
thermal systems. Rant [9] coined the phrase Exergy in 1956, pressure drop across the channel was measured using
and it refers to the Greek terms ex (external) and ergos differential pressure transducers connected at the inlet and
(hence) (work). Available energy, or simply availability, is outlet plenum of PTFE housing.
another word for the same thing. Exergy has the
characteristic that it is conserved only when all processes 2.2 Nanofluid Preparation
occurring in a system and the environment are reversible.
Nanofluids can be prepared by single-step or two-step
When an irreversible process happens, exergy is lost.
methods. The two-step method is widely used for the
Exergy analysis considers the thermodynamic values of
preparation of nanofluid. In the two steps, method
various energy forms and quantities, such as work and heat.
nanoparticles are first produced as dry powders by chemical
The exergy transfer associated with heat transfer, on the
or physical methods. Then the nano-sized powder will be
other hand, is dependent on the temperature at which it
dispersed into a base fluid with the help of a magnetic
happens in relation to the ambient temperature. There are
stirrer, ultrasonic shaker, etc. It is critical to create stable
several types of research works on exergy analysis in
nanofluids. Surfactants are one of the most common
mini/microchannels. whereas simple microchannel
methods for ensuring the stability of nanoparticles in fluids.
devices had the lowest. Zhipeng et al. [11] used a computer
The current study techniques employed Al2O3 nanoparticles
simulation model to conduct an entropy generation
(particle size 30-50 nm) and water is used as the base fluid.
investigation of nanofluids flow in microchannel. They
After calculating the weight of nanoparticles necessary for
claimed that microchannels with high aspect ratios had a
the production of nanofluid at a particular volume
narrower Reynolds number operating range.
concentration, nanoparticles were mixed in the base fluid.
Al2O3 nanofluids of three different volume concentrations in
2 EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY the range of 0.01, 0.1, 0.3, % were prepared for the present
A microchannel test facility has been fabricated and single- work. There is a chance of agglomeration of nanoparticles
phase experiments were conducted to study the exergic while it is suspended in the base fluidTo avoid this, all
performance and fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics
nanofluid test samples were treated to a magnetic stirring
in minichannel. The experiments were carried out initially
procedure followed by 5 hours of ultrasonic vibration. A
using base fluid (water) and then with the nanofluids. This drop of Triton-X-100 was employed as a surfactant to create
chapter discusses the detailed experimental setups and the stable aluminium oxide nanofluids.
procedures used to conduct the experiments. There are
several equations used throughout the experiments which 3 DATA DEDUCTION
are also included in this chapter.
3.1 Single Phase Flow
2.1 Experimental Setup The pressure drop across the inlet and exit
The experimental setup consists of a combination of several manifolds was measured by using two pressure transmitters
components. The schematic diagram of the experimental connected at the exit and inlet manifolds. The resulting
facility is shown in Fig 1 pressure drop measured is a combination of entrance and
exit loss and core frictional loss. Therefore, the net pressure
drop along the channel was calculated as,

(1)
Where Kc and Ke are the entrance and exit loss coefficients
respectively. The values of exit and entrance loss
coefficients are obtained from Shah and Sekulic [67]. The
values of these coefficients depend on the ratio of the
channel to plenum flow area and the Reynolds number. The
values are given in Table 3.1
The Fanning friction factor was determined using the
equation,

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the experimental facility (2)

The experimental facility consists of a water bath (2kW, Where hydraulic diameter,
10L capacity), a peristaltic pump (14 to 450 ml/min),
minichannel test section, a data logger, an autotransformer (3)
(0-250 V), aftercooler, and two pressure transmitters (EQ-
Reynolds number Re,

(4)

Where u is the mean fluid velocity along the channel and is

given by,
(5)
Fig. 2 Schematic representation of the interaction between the minichannel
The heat removed by water, heat sink and the environment.
.
Q = m c p (Tout − Tin ) (6) where 𝑇in, 𝑇out, exin, and eout are the temperatures and specific
exergies of the flow at the inlet and exit, respectively. P o is
Net heat input to the channel per unit area, the ambient pressure (atmospheric pressure). Based on the
control volume illustrated in Fig. 3.6, the exergy balance
under the steady-state condition is
= (7)  T 
0 = 1 − 0 Q − Wcv + m ein − m eout − icv
The local heat transfer coefficient is given by,  Tw 
where 𝑇𝑜 and 𝑇𝑤 are ambient and average wall temperatures
respectively. 𝑊𝑐𝑣 is the work done by the control volume, 𝑚̇
(8)
is the mass flow rate, is the rate of change in
irreversibility.
where the surface temperature at each Minichannel is a steady flow device; the outlet
thermocouple location and is the fluid outlet exergy of the minichannel can find out by the equation
.
temperature the Nusselt number is given by
Exout = m (hout − ℎo) – 𝑇o (Sout – So)

(9)

Where is the thermal conductivity of the fluid. The 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
thermophysical characteristics of water were determined Experiments were conducted for analyzing the exergic
using the arithmetic mean of the intake and exit performance and single-phase fluid flow and heat transfer
temperatures in the single-phase tests. characteristics in minichannels using base fluid and
nanofluids. This chapter discusses the effects of volume
concentration and mass flow rate on the thermal and exergy
performance of the minichannel. The exergy efficiency of
3.2 EXERGY ANALYSIS the channel mainly depends on the pressure drop across the
channel and outlet fluid temperature
In the case of a heat transfer device like minichannel,
the exergy represents the maximum amount of heat that 4.1 Heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids
could be extracted from the cooling surface. This is
calculated using the measured values of mass flow rate, Experiments have been performed using nanofluid
pressure drop, and thermocouple readings. as the coolant. Nanofluids at different particle volume
Heat carried away by the fluid, concentrations have been used to study the influence of the
𝑄̇ = 𝑚̇ 𝑐 (𝑇out – 𝑇in) (10) volume concentration of nanofluids on exergy and heat
transfer coefficient. Fig. 3 shows the variation of outlet
The average wall temperature at the base of the copper temperature of the fluid with mass flow rate for different
microchannel is calculated using the 1-D steady-state heat concentrations of Al2O3–water nanofluid and its comparison
conduction assumption and is expressed as follows: with base fluid (water). It is found that the outlet fluid
𝑇𝑤 = 𝑇𝑐 − (𝑄̇𝑡 /𝑘𝑐𝑢𝐴𝑝𝑙 ) (11) temperature increases with the augmentation of particle
volume concentration and decreases with an increase in
𝑇𝑐 is the average thermocouple temperature reading, 𝑡is the mass flow rate. The maximum outlet temperature of the
distance from the channel bottom to the thermocouple fluid was found for 0.3 vol.% at a flow rate of 42.75 ml/min.
position, which is 2.5 mm, 𝑘𝑐𝑢 is copper's thermal Compared to water nanofluids remove more heat from the
conductivity, and 𝐴𝑝𝑙 is the polycarbonate housing's base of the heater core of the minichannel and keep the base
platform area. temperature (average wall temperature) minimum. This
The minichannel heat sink is modeled as a one-stream heat might be due to an increase in the thermal conductivity of
exchanger with continuous heat input as illustrated in Fig.2. nanofluid.
 The maximum value heat transfer coefficient is found to be
at higher flow rates. Compared to water the heat transfer
coefficient of nanofluid is augmented by 50% at 0.3%
volume concentration

4.2 Exergy Analysis of Minichannel with Nanofluid

The outlet exergy of the minichannel has been

computed and shown in Fig 6 for various volume fractions
and volume flow rates.

Fig. 3 Variation of outlet temperature of fluid with mass flow rate for
different volume concentrations of nanofluid.

As demonstrated in Fig. 4, the pressure loss rises

with flow rate and nanofluid volume percentage. The
pressure loss increases as the mass flow rate and nanofluid
volume concentration increase. At 588 ml/min flow rate
(equivalent to 18,754 Pa) and 0.3 vol. percent
concentrations, the greatest pressure decrease was observed.
Comparing water and nanofluid, the pressure drop increased
by 39% while using nanofluid.

Fig. 6 Variation of outlet exergy at a different volume concentration of

nanofluid

The outlet exergy of the microchannel employing

nanofluid was greater than that of water, as measured. The
output exergy rose as the volume percentages of nanofluid
increased and dropped as the mass flow rate increased.
When nanofluid was used as a coolant, the output exergy
rose by 10%.

Fig. 4 Variation of pressure drop at different volume concentration

Fig. 7 Variation of exergy gain at different volume flow rates of nanofluid

When doing exergy analysis, exergy gain should also be
included and is plotted in fig 7. As the volume fractions of
nanofluid rise, the gain in exergy increases. It's also clear
Fig. 5 Variation of heat transfer coefficient with Reynolds number that when the volume flow rate rises, exergy gain declines.
Fig. 5 shows the variation of single-phase heat With a flow rate of 42.75 ml/min and a value of 31.186 W,
transfer coefficient with Reynolds number for water and the maximum exergy gain was obtained for 0.3 vol. percent.
nanofluids. The trend is the same for both fluids with a However, for 588 ml/min flow rate and 0.3 vol.% volume
considerable increase in heat transfer coefficient while using concentration, the maximum improvement of exergy gain
nanofluid. Increasing the concentration of nanoparticles was 15.01% concerning water
tends to increase the heat transfer coefficient. This increase
in heat transfer coefficient might be attributed to an increase
in nanofluid thermal conductivity.
 • Even at a large volume percentage, nanofluid had
outstanding stability. The thermal conductivity of
the nanofluid rose as the volume concentration of
nanoparticles increased.
• As the flow rate is increased, the friction factor
decreases, but volume fractions of nanofluid rise.
• For all ranges of Reynolds number heat transfer
coefficient of minichannel with nanofluids was
higher than that of water.
• 50% improvement in the heat transfer coefficient is
observed for nanofluid with 0.3% volume
concentration by the expense of only a 39% rise in
pressure drop compared to water.
Fig. 8 Variation of exergy efficiency with mass flow rate for different
volume concentrations of nanofluid The exergy efficiency and heat transfer coefficient were
improved while using nanofluid with higher volume
The exergy efficiency improves as the nanoparticle concentrations and so is recommended as a coolant in
volume concentration increases, but it decreases when the minichannel.
flow rate is increased. For the volume fraction of 0.3
percent, exergy efficiency was highest (40.86 percent) at
52.75 ml/min flow rate. When nanofluid is used, exergy REFERENCES
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