Comparison of Thermo-Hydraulic Performance Enhancement of Liquid He-Based Cryogenic Nanofluid Flow in Turbulent Region Through Rectangular Plate Fin Heat Exchangers

Abstract

In recent years, lot of work in the field of cryogenics is going on because its applications are now more prominent with the advancement of technology. Many researches have been done on fin geometry of the plate fin heat exchangers but only few works have been published on cryogenic nanofluid performance. This research work is focused on the enhancement of liquid He cryocooling heat exchange performance in rectangular plate fin heat exchanger. Four types of nanoparticles namely Al2O3, CuO, Fe3O4 and Single Wall Carbon Nanotube (SWCNT) are mixed with base fluid liquid helium to compare their performance as a plate fin heat exchanger fluid. A CFD analysis is done for fluid flow in the turbulent region. Comparison of the nanofluids at cryogenic temperature is compared with heat transfer performance parameter Colburn j-factor and pressure drop performance parameter Fanning’s friction factor(f). It has been found that around 15-30% enhancement of thermal performance is achieved with nanoparticles in comparison with liquid He without any nanoparticles. It has also been observed that there is an improvement of \\(\\frac{j}{{f^{1/3} }}\\) factor representing heat transfer enhancement without much increasing pumping pressure.