An experimental investigation on heat transfer and friction factor of Silicon Carbide/water nanofluids in a circular tube

Abstract The Silicon Carbide (SiC)/water nanofluids are experimentally investigated and compared to understand the effect of weight concentration and size of the SiC nanoparticles in the base fluid i.e., distilled water (DIW). The Nusselt number and friction factors are presented for different Reynolds numbers ranging from 3000 – 16000. A combination of nanofluids at 0.04 wt. %, 0.08 wt.% and 0.1 wt.% concentrations containing SiC nanoparticles obtained after 5 hrs, 10 hrs and 15 hrs of ball milling are considered in the present study. The results show that the heat transfer coefficient and friction factor are more than that of the base fluid for all combinations of nanofluids. The Nusselt number enhancement varies from 3.38% to 36.74%, where the friction factor increase varies from 2.1% - 13.5% with that of the base fluid for all nanofluids. The SiC nanofluid at 0.1 wt.% of nanoparticles obtained after 5hrs of ball milling dispersed in the base fluid is observed to give better results. The obtained results are compared with the standard liquid correlations and also empirical correlations for Nusselt number and friction factor as a function of particle size and weight concentration are established.