Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF THERMAL ANALYSIS AND CALORIMETRY, cilt.150, sa.5, ss.3821-3834, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Plate-fin heat exchangers (PFHEs) are commonly employed in automobile applications as radiators and play a vital role in waste heat management. The performance of common coolants for this type of heat exchangers can be enhanced by incorporating nanofluids as coolants. In this study, the coolant of MgO-pure water nanofluids having different nanoparticle volume concentrations have been utilized for a PFHE having offset-strip fins for coolant side and wavy fins for air side. The effects of different inlet temperatures of 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80 degrees C and coolant flow rates of 5, 8, and 11 LPM and different nanoparticle volume concentrations of 0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2% on the thermo-hydraulic behavior of radiator were investigated. The Reynolds number, heat transfer coefficient, heat transfer rate, Nusselt number and pressure drop have been taken into account as output parameters of the experiments. It has been concluded that there is a critical value for nanoparticle volume concentration (0.025%) at which the Reynolds number, heat transfer rate, heat transfer coefficient and Nu number reaches its maximum values. For instance, at a nanoparticle volume concentration of 0.025%, an increase of 265% was observed as the inlet temperature increased from 40 to 80 degrees C at a flow rate of 11 LPM. The maximum Reynolds number was also observed at this nanoparticle volume concentration for all tested flow rates and inlet temperatures. As for the pressure drop, increasing the nanoparticle volume concentration resulted in a rise in pressure drop across the radiator, with the highest value recorded at a 0.2% concentration. A noticeable reduction in pumping power was observed at higher inlet temperatures for a fixed flow rate and nanoparticle concentration. These findings indicate that the use of MgO-pure water nanofluids with an optimal nanoparticle concentration (0.025%) can substantially enhance the thermal and hydraulic performance of PFHEs in automotive radiator applications.