A comparison of experimental heat transfer characteristics for Al2O3/water and CuO/water nanofluids in square cross-section duct

The present paper is a comparison between heat transfer characteristics of Al2O3/water and CuO/water nanofluids through a square cross-section cupric duct in laminar flow under uniform heat flux. Sometimes because of pressure drop limitations the need for noncircular ducts arises in many heat transfer applications, and a testing facility has been constructed for this purpose and experimental studies were performed on both nanofluids under different nanoparticles concentrations in distilled water as a base fluid. The results indicate that a considerable heat transfer enhancement has been achieved by both nanofluids compared with base fluid. However, CuO/water nanofluid shows better heat transfer augmentation compared with Al2O3/water nanofluid through square cross-section duct.