International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 76 (2016) 2432

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ichmt

Heat transfer and friction factor of water and ethylene glycol mixture
based TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids under turbulent ow
W.H. Azmi a,, K. Abdul Hamid a, N.A. Usri a, Rizalman Mamat a, M.S. Mohamad b
a
b

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering/Automotive Engineering Centre Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia
Faculty of Industrial Sciences & Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Available online 14 May 2016

Keywords:
Heat transfer
Friction factor
Nanouids
Thermal conductivity
Viscosity

a b s t r a c t
It has been a great challenge in heat transfer to provide efcient thermal uids for cooling purposes especially in
engineering practice. The concerns on various operating temperatures become the main concern in the present
study to investigate the heat transfer and friction factor of titanium oxide (TiO2) and aluminium oxide (Al2O3)
under turbulent ow in a tube. The nanouids were prepared using the two-step method and dilution process
for volume concentrations of 0.5% to 1.0% in a mixture of water (W) and ethylene glycol (EG) at a volume ratio
of 60:40 (W:EG). The convective heat transfer investigations were conducted at a constant heat ux boundary
condition and operating temperatures of 30, 50 and 70 C. The enhancement of thermal conductivity and viscosity of Al2O3 was found to be inuenced by the temperature while the enhancement of the TiO2 nanouid properties was observed to be independent of temperature. Both Al2O3 and TiO2 nanouids were observed to have
almost the same values of heat transfer coefcients for 1.0% concentration at 50 and 70 C with an average enhancement of 24%. However, the heat transfer coefcients of Al2O3 nanouids were found to be higher than
TiO2 nanouids at the operating temperature of 30 C. The heat transfer concentrations increased with volume
concentration and observed for both types of nanouids at all operating temperatures. The friction factors for
both TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids slightly increased with volume concentration.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Forced convection heat transfer plays an important role in cooling
components and system especially in engineering practices. The process
involves heat movements such as heat added or removed from one
process to another. However, the poor thermal ability inherent by
conventional uids puts a limitation on heat transfer to give the best
performance. Therefore, it is important to develop a new heat transfer
uid which can give high thermal performance compared to common
uids. In order to overcome the problem, the nanouid was introduced
by Masuda et al. [1]. Through Maxwell's [2] research on the possibilities
of increasing thermal conductivity of a uidsolid mixture, further research using particles with micrometre or even millimetre dimensions
was used [3]. With early research on using suspended nano-sized particles in the base uid [46], it is convinced that nanouids have the
potential to be the next-generation coolants and giving development
in achieving advance performance of the cooling system [7].

Communicated by Dr. W.J. Minkowycz.

Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: wanazmi2010@gmail.com (W.H. Azmi), khamisah0301@gmail.com
(K. Abdul Hamid), nurashikinusri@gmail.com (N.A. Usri), rizalman@ump.edu.my
(R. Mamat), mohdsham@ump.edu.my (M.S. Mohamad).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2016.05.010
0735-1933/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The experimental determination of thermo-physical properties such

as viscosity and thermal conductivity of nanouids has been explored
by many researchers [816]. Sundar et al. [8] conducted a study on thermal properties using Fe3O4 nanouids in a mixture of EG and water and
found that the thermal conductivity of nanouids increased as concentrations and temperatures of the nanouids increased. Apart from these
two outstanding factors, the types of nanoparticles used also contribute
to the thermal conductivity enhancement, as well as particle size and
the stability of the nanouid [9,10]. Other factors that affect the thermal
conductivity are the particle shape and aggregation as found by Chen
et al. [11]. Thermal conductivity mostly increases with the addition of
nanoparticles into the base uid. However, the enhancement may
vary as proven by Turgut et al. [12] where the nding of their studies
showed that there was no temperature dependence related to the
enhancement of thermal conductivity.
For another important properties study, viscosity decreases with the
increase of temperature and increases with the increase of concentration [12]. The majority of previous studies conducted suggested that
the nanouids have the best performance with the combination of
high thermal conductivity and low viscosity [13,14]. It also becomes a
major point in nanouid studies because the nanouid is expected to
show an increase in thermal conductivity without an increase in
pressure drop, which in turn is related to uid viscosity [15]. Namburu
et al. [16] found a decrease in exponential pattern for viscosity

W.H. Azmi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 76 (2016) 2432

Nomenclature
A
Cp
d
EG
f
FESEM
h
I
k
L
LPM
_
m
Nu
Pr
Q
Re
T
TEM
v
V
Vt

Area, m2
Specic heat, J/kg.K
Diameter, m
Ethylene glycol
Friction factor
Field emission scanning electron microscopy
Heat transfer coefcient, W/m2.K
Current, A
Thermal conductivity, W/m.K
Length, m
Liter per minutes
Mass ow rate, kg/s
Nusselt number
Prandtl number
Rate of heat transfer
Reynolds number
Temperature, C
Transmission electron microscopy
Velocity, m/s2
Volume, m3
Voltage, V

Greek symbols
P
Pressure drop, Pa

Volume concentration, %

Volume fraction

Weight concentration, %

Density, kg/m3

Dynamic viscosity, kg/m.s

Subscripts
bf
Base uid
DB
DittusBoelter
exp
Experimental
nf
Nanouid
p
Particle
s
Surface
B
Bulk
1
Initial
2
Final

properties using CuO nanoparticles dispersed in 60:40 (EG:W) when

the temperature elevated from 10 to 50 C. While for base uids, the viscosity also decreases by about 73.21% while the temperature increases
from 35 to 50 C.
The experimental studies on nanouid heat transfer were started by
Pak and Cho [17] under turbulent ow using Al2O3water and TiO2
water nanouids in a circular pipe and continued by many researchers
after that. Suresh et al. [18] examined the convective heat transfer behaviour of Al2O3 nanoparticles dispersed in water based in a circular
tube under a laminar region. The convective heat transfer coefcient
can be predicted by means of the traditional correlations and observed
for positive heat transfer enhancements compared to the base uid.
Such studies by Duangthongsuk and Wongwises [19] used a horizontal
double-tube counter ow heat exchanger with TiO2 nanouid of 21 nm
and a concentration of 0.2%. The base uid used was water and tested at
turbulent region where the Reynolds number ranges from 4000 to
18,000. The heat transfer coefcient of nanouids in the study where
nanouid was present was about 6%11% higher than the base liquid.
The heat transfer coefcient also increased with an increase in the
mass ow rate. Both researches by Bhanvase et al. [20] and Reddy and

25

Rao [21] with nanoparticles of TiO2 proved that the use of the mixture
of water/EG can also provide heat transfer enhancement.
There are various types of nanoparticles that have been studied for
the investigation of nanouid heat transfers up till today. However,
the comparison of two different types of water/EG mixture based
nanouids for the evaluation on heat transfer performance under similar working temperature is still limited in literature. Hence, the present
work investigates the effect of TiO2 and Al2O3 nanoparticles with the
average size of 13 and 50 nm, respectively dispersed in W:EG (60:40)
mixture on convective heat transfer coefcient at various working
temperatures.
2. Methodology
2.1. Sample preparation
Two types of oxide materials used in the present study are titanium
oxide (TiO2) and aluminium oxide (Al2O3) procured from US Research
Nanomaterials, Inc. (USA) and Sigma Aldrich (USA), respectively. The
TiO2 nanoparticles were suspended in water with 40 wt.% concentration
(13.6% volume concentration) and 50 nm in size. On the other hand,
Al2O3 was in powder form with 13 nm in size. Eq. (1) is used to convert
weight concentration of TiO2 nanouids to volume concentration.
Meanwhile, Eq. (2) is used to nd the mass of Al2O3 nanoparticles to
the desired volume concentration by the two step preparation. Both
TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids were diluted to low concentrations by adding
the base uid into the solution using Eq. (3). The samples were observed
to be stable for over two months for both Al2O3 and TiO2 nanouids. The
summary of Al2O3 and TiO2 nanoparticle properties [14], the range of pH
and nanouid concentrations are shown in Table 1.

bf


100 p 100 bf

mp =p
 100
mp =p mbf =bf

V V 2 V 1 V 1



1
1
2

A mixture of water and ethylene glycol (EG) at a volume ratio of

60:40 was used as the base uid in the present study. A volume of
22 L of nanouids is required to conduct the experiment. The nanouids
prepared were subjected to a mixing process using mechanical stirrer
for 30 min and underwent sonication process using Fisherbrand ultrasonic bath for 2 h for each concentration prepared to enhance the
dispersion and stability of nanouids [22]. The thermal conductivity
and dynamic viscosity of nanouids were measured with KD2 Pro
Thermal Analyser and Brookeld LVDV-III Rheometre, respectively at
temperatures from 30 to 70 C. The mixture relations for density and
specic heat of nanouids are given as Eqs. (4) and (5), respectively.
nf p 1bf

Table 1
Properties of TiO2 and Al2O3 nanomaterials.
Nanoparticles

TiO2

Al2O3

Size, dp (nm)
Density, p(kg/m3) [14]
Thermal conductivity, kp (W/m.K) [17]
Volume concentration, (%)
pH

50
4230
8.4
0.5, 0.7 and 1.0
6.706.93

13
4000
36
0.6, 0.8 and 1.0
5.555.85

26

C nf

W.H. Azmi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 76 (2016) 2432

1Cbf Cp
1bf p

2.2. Forced convection heat transfer apparatus

The forced convection heat transfer experiment was conducted
using the setup that consists of a main test section with an inner
diameter of 16 mm and outer diameter of 19 mm. The test section
was installed with two nichrome heaters each of 1500 W rating and

insulated with ceramic bre insulators. A thermocouple is placed at

each inlet and outlet of the test section. Five thermocouples were
welded to the body of the tube wall at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, and 1.25 m
from the inlet. A constant heat ux of 7955 W/m2 was supplied by
voltage regulators at 600 W input power.
The setup included a chiller to cool the working uid after being
heated. The thermocouples and pressure transducers were connected
to the data acquisition system. The experimental setup and its schematic diagram are shown in Fig. 1. The nanouid was placed in the
collecting tank and circulated by the 0.5 hp pump to the entire test rig
through the piping system. The nanouid then entered the tube test

Fig. 1. Forced convection heat transfer test rig.

W.H. Azmi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 76 (2016) 2432

27

section. The outlet of the test section was connected to a chiller to cool
down the nanouid at a desired bulk temperature before it entered
the inlet. The ow rate was controlled using a bypass regulator, placed
at various locations.
All thermocouples recorded the data of inlet, outlet and ve surface
temperatures. The differential pressure transducer of 0.5 psi recorded
the pressure drop. All pressure and temperature data were recorded
by the ADAMView Advantech Data Acquisition and preceded with analysis. The setup was used in previous experimental evaluations [14,23,
24] and modied accordingly. The total length of the uid ow in the
tube was 4 m, which ensures a fully developed turbulent ow at the
entry of the test section. The requirements to ensure that the ow of
working uid is turbulent are based on the equations of Lh 10D [25]
and L/D 60 [26]. The range of uncertainties in the measuring
instrumentations was from 0.01% to 0.73% as shown in Appendix 1.
The forced convection experiments were undertaken with base uid
operating at 30, 50 and 70 C to determine the heat transfer coefcient
and pressure drop for ow rate from 2 to 20 LPM. The temperature and
pressure drop were recorded under steady state condition. The determination of heat transfer coefcients and friction factors was according to
the Newton's law of cooling and Darcy equation, respectively. The experimental data for water/EG (60:40) mixture was compared with
equations in literature to ensure the reliability of the test rig and the experimental results. The experiments using TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids
were conducted for volume concentrations of less than 1.0% at a wide
range of ow rates and operating temperatures of 30, 50 and 70 C for
the evaluation of heat transfer coefcients and friction factors. The maximum and minimum error in the experimental data is presented in
Appendix 2. The stability and dispersion of nanouids were ensured
through pH measurements and FESEM or TEM imaging techniques,
respectively.

Chon et al. [32] where the smaller particle size affects the thermal
conductivity of the nanouids as a result of the increasing Brownian
motion. The Al2O3 nanoparticles being the smaller sized compared to
TiO2 resulted in higher surface area to volume ratio hence, the increase
in thermal conductivity [33]. In addition, the thermal conductivity of
Al2O3 nanoparticles is also naturally higher than TiO2 nanoparticles
according to Pak and Cho [17] as presented in Table 1. Therefore, the
nanouid solution with high thermal conductivity of nanoparticles
exhibits higher effective thermal conductivity.
Fig. 4 shows the variation of dynamic viscosity with temperature for
TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids. Al2O3 nanouids exhibit higher relative viscosity as compared to TiO2 for the range of concentrations studied.
The average enhancement in viscosity for TiO2 nanouids was found
to be 12.6% which is 3.6% smaller than Al2O3 nanouids. The viscosity
ratio of TiO2 nanouids was almost independent of the temperature.
However for Al2O3, there was a uctuation along the temperature
range with higher enhancements recorded at low temperatures of
30 C. The viscosity enhancements of the two nanouids increased
with concentration. The uctuation of the relative viscosity in the
range of the temperature studied is possibly related to the difference
in the structure and thickness of the diffused uid layers around the
nanoparticles in the base uids, which affects the effective volume concentration, and ultimately the viscosity of the suspension [34]. Interestingly, Al2O3 nanouids exhibit high effective thermal conductivity but
on the other hand, penalized with high relative viscosity. Contradictory
to TiO2 nanouids, which is low in effective thermal conductivity but
also low in relative viscosity. This behaviour will inuence the overall
heat transfer performance of TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids. Consequently,
further investigations on the forced convection heat transfer were
conducted to compare the heat transfer and friction factors between
TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids at various working temperatures.

3. Results and discussion

3.2. Forced convection heat transfer

3.1. Dispersion and properties

Eqs. (6) to (12) are considered in the present heat transfer analysis.
The rate of heat transfer, Q to uid owing in a tube is expressed as
Eq. (6) based on Newton's law of cooling. The input power, Q from the
heater is supplied from the electrical power, expressed as Eq. (7). For
energy balance, the heat transfer from the heater is equal to the heat
transfer into the uid ow, with the assumption of no heat loss,
expressed by Eq. (8). Hence, the heat transfer coefcient, h is derived
from Eq. (9).

The stability of TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids was observed through

pH and micrograph evaluation by FESEM and TEM. The pH of TiO2
nanouids for concentrations of less than 1.0% is found to be 6.70 to
6.93 which is close to neutral. The results were in good agreement
with literatures such as Murshed et al. [27], Duangthongsuk and
Wongwises [28], Chakraborty et al. [29] and Azmi et al. [14] for the
same type of particle and range of concentration. The Al2O3 nanouid
however is more acidic with pH of 5.55 to 5.83 and found agreeable
with Chandrasekar et al. [30]. FESEM images of TiO2 and Al2O3 showed
that the nanopowder was in clusters under atmospheric conditions. The
TEM image showed that the particles dispersed into the liquid medium
and ensured a good nanouid suspension. Both FESEM and TEM images
are shown in Fig. 2.
The variation of thermal conductivity with temperature for TiO2 and
Al2O3 nanouids in water/EG mixture is shown in Fig. 3. Based on the
gure, there is a considerable increase in the thermal conductivity enhancement from 30 to 70 C for Al2O3 nanouids. The Al2O3 nanouids
for all volume concentrations provided enhancements of more than 10%
for temperatures of higher than 40 C. The thermal conductivity enhancement for Al2O3 nanouids was also discovered by Das et al. [31]
with concentrations of 1.0% and temperature ranges of 21 to 51 C.
However, the TiO2 nanouids only recorded enhancements of less
than 5% and the ratios that are nearly independent to the temperature.
The enhancement variations of the two types of nanouids became
more noticeable when the temperature exceeds 40 C. However, the
thermal conductivity enhancements show increment with volume concentrations for both types of nanouids. The difference in enhancement
values between the two sets of data is possibly due to the particle size
difference as given in Table 1. The Al2O3 nanoparticle size is much smaller than TiO2 nanoparticles. This is in agreement with the ndings by

Q hAT s T b

_ p T
Q V t I mC

Heat from tube = Heat in uid ow

_ p T
Q hAT s T b mC
h exp

Q
AT

8
9

The dimensionless parameters, Reynolds number, Nusselt number, and DittusBoelter [26] for Nusselt number, are presented by
Eqs. (10) to (12) [25].
Reynolds number, Re is given by Eq. (10).
Re

vd

10

Nusselt number, Nu is given by Eq. (11).

Nu exp

hd
k

11

28

W.H. Azmi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 76 (2016) 2432

TiO2 at 200,000 magnifications

Al2O3 at 250,000 magnifications

(a) FESEM images of TiO2 and Al2O3

TiO2 at 140,000 magnifications and 1.0% volume concentration

(b) TEM images of TiO2

Fig. 2. Micrograph images of nanoparticles (TiO2 and Al2O3) and nanouid (TiO2).

DittusBoelter [26] equation which is applicable for Re N 104 and

0.6 b Pr b 200 is presented as Eq. (12).
NuDB 0:023Re0:8 Pr0:4

12

Validation of the experimental Nusselt number data was conducted

for base uid (W/EG) at three bulk temperatures of 30, 50 and 70 C and

shown in Fig. 5. The reliability of the experimental setup was conrmed

with the estimated values from the DittusBoelter [26] equation as in
Eq. (12) and experimental data of water/EG. The experimental values
of water/EG at three bulk temperatures showed good agreement with
the DittusBoelter relation. The maximum deviation between the
experimental values and DittusBoelter were 5.8%, 3.8% and 2.9%,
respectively for 30, 50 and 70 C. The validation test for Nusselt number

1.25

Thermal conductivity ratio, kr

1.20

Al 2 O3
[%]
0.6
0.8
1.0

2.4

TiO2
[%]
0.5
0.7
1.0

2.2
Dynamic viscosity ratio, r

TiO2
[%]
0.5
0.7
1.0

1.15

1.10

1.05

2.0

Al2O3
[%]
0.6
0.8
1.0

1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2

1.00
20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Temperature, T [ C]

1.0
20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Temperature, T [oC]
Fig. 3. Variation of thermal conductivity ratio of TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids with
temperature.

Fig. 4. Variation of viscosity ratio of TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids with temperature.

W.H. Azmi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 76 (2016) 2432

3500

240
W/EG at 30oC
W/EG at 50oC
W/EG at 70oC

1
3000

160
120
80
Dittus-Boelter [26]
1 30oC
2 50oC
3 70oC

40

Heat transfer coefficient, h [W/m .K]

200
Nusselt number, Nu

29

2500
2000
Al 2 O 3
[%]
0.6
0.8
1.0

TiO 2
[%]
0.5
0.7
1.0

1500
1000
500

water/EG

0
0

4000

8000

12000

16000

20000

24000

28000

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

Reynolds number, Re

Reynolds number, Re

(a) temperature of 30 oC
Fig. 5. Comparison of experimental Nusselt number W/EG with DittusBoelter relation.

Heat transfer coefficient, h [W/m .K]

4000

3000

2000

TiO 2
[%]
0.5
0.7
1.0

1000

Al 2 O 3
[%]
0.6
0.8
1.0

water/EG

0
0

4000

8000

12000

16000

20000

Reynolds number, Re

(b) temperature of 50 oC
6000
5000
2

Heat transfer coefficient, h [W/m .K]

using the DittusBoelter relation was also consistent with other

researchers [14,35,36].
The experimental heat transfer coefcients of water/EG, TiO2 and
Al2O3 nanouids are shown plotted in Fig. 6(a) to (c). The operating
temperatures for the experiments were 30, 50 and 70 C; the TiO2 and
Al2O3 particle sizes were 50 nm and 13 nm respectively. The heat transfer coefcient variation with Reynolds number at the temperature of
30 C is shown in Fig. 6(a). The heat transfer coefcient of TiO2
nanouids was lower than W/EG for volume concentrations of 0.5% to
1.0%. The cause for this behaviour is complex involving the combination
of enhancements in thermal conductivity and viscosity of the nanouids
[24]. The decrease in heat transfer coefcient is due to the particle migration mechanism where the particles tend to concentrate in the
pipe centre, which resulted in the decrease of the boundary layer thickness [37]. However, Al2O3 nanouids show favourable advantages of
being higher than W/EG for all concentrations. This is due to the higher
enhancement in thermal conductivity and the effect of smaller particle
size as compared to TiO2 nanouids. The numerical study by Saha
et al. [38] described the reason for such augmentation between TiO2
and Al2O3 water based nanouids where the aspects such as enhancement of thermal conductivity, nanoparticle size and shape, Brownian
motion of particles, decrease in boundary layer thickness and delay in
boundary layer growth may contribute to the behaviour. This is a t
with the present study since Saha et al. [38] conducted the study for
inlet temperature of 20 C, and particle size of 10 nm was the best choice
in order to achieve a higher heat transfer rate.
On the other hand, it is interesting to see that the heat transfer coefcients for both nanouids were almost similar for operating temperatures of 50 and 70 C as shown in Fig. 6(b) and (c). Despite the fact that
Al2O3 nanouids possessed higher enhancement in thermal conductivity than TiO2, this effect is reduced as the heat transfer coefcients of
both TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids at 50 and 70 C for a concentration of
1.0% were almost the same values. The possible reason for this behaviour is due to the fact that as the temperature increased, the nanouid
viscosity decreased and directly affects the uid internal shear stress
as well as weakened the inter-particle and inter-molecular adhesion
forces [39]. With the increase in thermal conductivity and decrease in
viscosity, the effect to the heat transfer is almost equal even though
the particle size differs. In addition, with higher temperature and higher
Reynolds number range for 50 and 70 C, the intensity of the ow
turbulence is higher due to the increase in the collision among particle
loading [40] and resulted in the enhancement of heat transfer rates.
The similarity for these three data plots is that the heat transfer
coefcient increased with the increase in concentration and Reynolds
number for both nanouids and in agreement with other researchers
[23,35,41].

5000

4000
3000
TiO 2
[%]
0.5
0.7
1.0

2000
1000

Al 2 O 3
[%]
0.6
0.8
1.0

water/EG

0
0

4000

8000

12000

16000

20000

24000

Reynolds number, Re

(c) temperature of 70 oC
Fig. 6. Variation of heat transfer coefcient with Reynolds number of TiO2 and Al2O3
nanouids at various temperatures.

3.3. Friction factor

The Darcy friction factor of nanouid was evaluated according to
Eq. (13) with the values recorded by the pressure transducer.
P exp
f exp   2 
L v
d
2

13

30

W.H. Azmi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 76 (2016) 2432

0.06
TiO 2
[%]
0.5
0.7
1.0

Friction factor, f

0.05

increasing temperature. Therefore, the internal friction forces between

molecules decreased. Consequently, the ow resistance decreased and
the distribution of nanouids at all concentrations and temperatures
was within reach of each other [43]. Combination of the effects of
temperature and ow rate (increased Reynolds number) would lead
to decrement in viscosity due to the weakening of the link of nanoparticles and shrinkage of the nanoparticle cluster sizes [44]. These results
were consistent with those of some other researchers [45,46].

Al 2 O 3
[%]
0.6
0.8
1.0

0.04

4. Conclusions

0.03

The thermal conductivity enhancement of Al2O3 nanouids is

higher than TiO2 nanouids. The ratio of thermal conductivity for TiO2
nanouids was almost constant with the temperature; however, it increased with the concentration for both nanouids. The dynamic viscosity ratio of Al2O3 nanouids uctuated with temperature variation with
the maximum value at 30 C. Meanwhile, the TiO2 nanouids were independent of temperature. The heat transfer coefcients of Al2O3
nanouids were higher than TiO2 nanouids at operating temperature
of 30 C. In addition, the heat transfer coefcients of TiO2 nanouids
were lower than the based mixture of water/EG for concentrations up
to 1.0% at the same working temperature. However, the heat transfer
coefcients were observed to be nearly equal at temperatures of 50
and 70 C. The heat transfer coefcient increased with concentration
and was higher than the based mixture. The maximum enhancements
of 24.2% and 23.8% were observed for TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids, consecutively at a 1.0% concentration and a temperature of 70 C. The friction
factors for both TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids slightly increased with
volume concentrations.

Blasius [42]
water/EG

0.02
0

4000

8000

12000

16000

20000

24000

Reynolds number, Re
Fig. 7. Friction factor of base uid, TiO2 and Al2O3 nanouids at bulk temperature 30, 50
and 70 C.

The experimental values of friction factor for water/EG estimated

with Eq. (13) were compared with the values calculated using Blasius
[42] in Eq. (14), which is valid for the range of ReN4000.
fB

0:3164

14

Re0:25

Fig. 7 presents the friction factor of base uid, TiO2 and Al2O3
nanouids. The friction factor decreased with the increase of Reynolds
number. It can be seen that nanouids that were less and equal to
1.0% in volume concentration in the present study did not inuence
the friction factor substantially. The friction factor distribution of TiO2
and Al2O3 nanouids was close to the Blasius [42] line for concentrations of 0.5% to 1.0%, hence the friction factor insignicantly increases
with the concentration. The free volume in the nanouids internal
structure increased due to the decreasing viscosity caused by the

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP)
and Automotive Engineering Centre (AEC) for nancial supports given
under RDU1403153 and RDU151411 (RAGS/1/2015/TK0/UMP/03/2).

Appendix 1. Uncertainty of instruments

No.

Name of instrument

Range of instrument

Variables measured

Least division in measuring instrument

Thermocouple

0300 C

Bulk temperature, Tb

Thermocouple

0300 C

Average surface temperature, Tw

Volume ow rate, V_
Voltage, Vt
Current, I
Pressure drop, P

Flow metre

230 LPM

4
5
6

Voltage
Current
Pressure transducer

0240 V
015 A
060 mV
06894.8 Pa
01.0 psi

UT = 0.1 C
p
U T b 0:12 0:12 =0.14142
UT = 0.1 C
p
U T w 5  0:12 =0.22361
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01

Values measured in
experiment

% uncertainty

Min

Max

Min

Max

28.55

71.35

0.49535

0.19821

30.73

84.63

0.72765

0.26422

1.87

21.15

0.53476

0.04728

110.1
5.45
0.32
54. 44
0.00790

110.1
5.45
42.26
3272
0.47456

0.00908
0.18349
3.125
3.125
3.125

0.00908
0.18349
0.02366
0.02366
0.02366

Appendix 2. Uncertainty of physical quantities

No.

Heat transfer and friction

parameter

Reynolds number, Re
Re vd

Heat ux, q

Maximum uncertainty (%)

Minimum uncertainty (%)

r
U Re
Re

vv
q
0:12 0:534762 0:12
0:55314%

r
U Re
Re

vv
q
0:12 0:047282 0:12
0:14912%

W.H. Azmi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 76 (2016) 2432

31

Appendix
2 (continued)
(continued)
No.

Heat transfer and friction

parameter
Vt I
q QA dL

Heat transfer coefcient, h

q
h T w T
b

Nusselt number, Nu
Nu hd
k

Friction factor, f
f L Pvd
d

Thermo-physical properties

Maximum uncertainty (%)

Minimum uncertainty (%)

r
Uq
q

VVtt UI I
q
0:009082 0:183492
0:18349
r

Uq
q

Uh
h

Uh
h

Uh
h

Uh
h

U T T 2
T wwT bb

U 2
qq

q
U T w T b
0:727652 0:495352
T w T b
0:88025%
q
0:183712 0:880252

0:89922%
q

U Nu
Nu

Uhh Ukk
q

0:899222 0:12

UPP vv
q
3:1252 0:12 2  0:534762

3:21676%
0.1

U T

qq T wwT bb
q
U T w T b
0:264222 0:198212
T w T b
0:33030%
q
0:183712 0:352692

0:397795%
q

U Nu
Nu

Uhh Ukk
q

0:377952 0:12

r
0:39096%

Uf
f

UPP vv
q
0:023662 0:12 2  0:047282

0:12260%
0.1

References
[1] H. Masuda, A. Ebata, K. Teramae, N. Hishinuma, Alteration of thermal conductivity
and viscosity of liquid by dispersing ultra ne particles, Netsu Bussei 4 (4) (1993)
227233.
[2] J.C. Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, Clarendon press, 1881.
[3] M. Izadi, A. Behzadmehr, D. Jalali-Vahida, Numerical study of developing laminar
forced convection of a nanouid in an annulus, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 48 (11) (2009)
21192129.
[4] U.S. Choi, Enhancing Thermal Conductivity of Fluids with Nanoparticles, American
Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), New York, 1995.
[5] J.A. Eastman, S.U.S. Choi, S. Li, L.J. Thompson, S. Lee, Enhanced thermal conductivity
through the development of nanouids, Proc. Symposium Nanophase and Nanocomposite Materials II, Materials Research Society, Boston, MA 1997, pp. 311.
[6] K.V. Wong, O. De Leon, Applications of nanouids: current and future, Adv. Mech.
Eng. 2 (2010) 519659.
[7] S.K. Das, S.U.S. Choi, W. Yu, T. Pradeep, Nanouids: Science and Technology, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, 2008.
[8] L.S. Sundar, M.K. Singh, A.C.M. Sousa, Thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol and
water mixture based Fe3O4 nanouid, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 49 (2013)
1724.
[9] G. Paul, J. Philip, B. Raj, P.K. Das, I. Manna, Synthesis, characterization, and thermal
property measurement of nano-Al95Zn05 dispersed nanouid prepared by a twostep process, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 54 (1516) (2011) 37833788.
[10] F.S. Javadi, S. Sadeghipour, R. Saidur, G. BoroumandJazi, B. Rahmati, M.M. Elias, M.R.
Sohel, The effects of nanouid on thermophysical properties and heat transfer characteristics of a plate heat exchanger, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 44 (2013)
5863.
[11] H. Chen, Y. Ding, A. Lapkin, Rheological behaviour of nanouids containing tube/
rod-like nanoparticles, Powder Technol. 194 (12) (2009) 132141.
[12] A. Turgut, I. Tavman, M. Chirtoc, H. Schuchmann, C. Sauter, S. Tavman, Thermal
conductivity and viscosity measurements of water-based TiO2 nanouids, Int. J.
Thermophys. 30 (4) (2009) 12131226.
[13] J. Garg, B. Poudel, M. Chiesa, J.B. Gordon, J.J. Ma, J.B. Wang, Z.F. Ren, Y.T. Kang, H.
Ohtani, J. Nanda, G.H. McKinley, G. Chen, Enhanced thermal conductivity and viscosity of copper nanoparticles in ethylene glycol nanouid, J. Appl. Phys. 103 (7)
(2008) 074301074306.
[14] W.H. Azmi, K.V. Sharma, P.K. Sarma, R. Mamat, G. Naja, Heat transfer and friction
factor of water based TiO2 and SiO2 nanouids under turbulent ow in a tube, Int.
Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 59 (2014) 3038.
[15] Y. Li, J.e. Zhou, S. Tung, E. Schneider, S. Xi, A review on development of nanouid
preparation and characterization, Powder Technol. 196 (2) (2009) 89101.
[16] P.K. Namburu, D.P. Kulkarni, D. Misra, D.K. Das, Viscosity of copper oxide nanoparticles dispersed in ethylene glycol and water mixture, Exp. Thermal Fluid Sci. 32 (2)
(2007) 397402.
[17] B.C. Pak, Y.I. Cho, Hydrodynamic and heat transfer study of dispersed uids with
submicron metallic oxide particles, Exp. Heat Transfer 11 (2) (1998) 151170.
[18] S. Suresh, M. Chandrasekar, P. Selvakumar, T. Page, Experimental studies on heat
transfer and friction factor characteristics of Al2O3/water nanouid under laminar
ow with spiralled rod inserts, Int. J. Nanoparticles 5 (1) (2012) 3755.
[19] W. Duangthongsuk, S. Wongwises, Heat transfer enhancement and pressure drop
characteristics of TiO2water nanouid in a double-tube counter ow heat exchanger, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 52 (78) (2009) 20592067.
[20] B.A. Bhanvase, M.R. Sarode, L.A. Putterwar, A. K.A, M.P. Deosarkar, S.H. Sonawane, Intensication of convective heat transfer in water/ethylene glycol based nanouids

0:18371%
r

r
0:90476%

Uf
f

VVtt UI I
q
0:009082 0:183492

[21]

[22]
[23]

[24]

[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]

[29]

[30]

[31]
[32]

[33]

[34]

[35]

[36]

[37]

[38]

containing TiO2 nanoparticles, Chem. Eng. Process. Process Intensif. 82 (2014)

123131.
M. Chandra Sekhara Reddy, V. Vasudeva Rao, Experimental investigation of heat
transfer coefcient and friction factor of ethylene glycol water based TiO2 nanouid
in double pipe heat exchanger with and without helical coil inserts, Int. Commun.
Heat Mass Transfer 50 (2014) 6876.
W. Yu, H. Xie, A review on nanouids: preparation, stability mechanisms, and
applications, J. Nanomater. 2012 (2012) 1.
W.H. Azmi, K.V. Sharma, P.K. Sarma, R. Mamat, S. Anuar, Comparison of convective
heat transfer coefcient and friction factor of TiO2 nanouid ow in a tube with
twisted tape inserts, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 81 (2014) 8493.
W.H. Azmi, K.V. Sharma, P.K. Sarma, R. Mamat, S. Anuar, V. Dharma Rao, Experimental determination of turbulent forced convection heat transfer and friction factor
with SiO2 nanouid, Exp. Thermal Fluid Sci. 51 (2013) 103111.
Y.A. Cengel, Ghajar, J. Afshin, Heat and Mass Transfer-Fundamental and Applications, 4th (SI Units) ed. McGraw Hill, New York, 2011.
F.W. Dittus, L.M.K. Boelter, Heat transfer in automobile radiators of the tubular type,
University of California Publications on Engineering, 2 1930, pp. 443461.
S.M.S. Murshed, K.C. Leong, C. Yang, Enhanced thermal conductivity of TiO2water
based nanouids, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 44 (4) (2005) 367373.
W. Duangthongsuk, S. Wongwises, An experimental study on the heat transfer performance and pressure drop of TiO2water nanouids owing under a turbulent
ow regime, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 53 (13) (2010) 334344.
S. Chakraborty, J. Mukherjee, M. Manna, P. Ghosh, S. Das, M.B. Denys, Effect of Ag
nanoparticle addition and ultrasonic treatment on a stable TiO2 nanouid, Ultrason.
Sonochem. 19 (5) (2012) 10441050.
M. Chandrasekar, S. Suresh, A. Chandra Bose, Experimental studies on heat
transfer and friction factor characteristics of Al2O3/water nanouid in a circular
pipe under laminar ow with wire coil inserts, Exp. Thermal Fluid Sci. 34 (2)
(2010) 122130.
S.K. Das, N. Putra, P. Thiesen, W. Roetzel, Temperature dependence of thermal conductivity enhancement for nanouids, J. Heat Transf. 125 (4) (2003) 567574.
C.H. Chon, K.D. Kihm, S.P. Lee, S.U.S. Choi, Empirical correlation nding the role of
temperature and particle size for nanouid (Al2O3) thermal conductivity enhancement, Appl. Phys. Lett. 87 (15) (2005) 15310711531073.
U.S. Choi, Enhancing thermal conductivity of uids with nanoparticles, in: D.A.
Siginer, H.P. Wang (Eds.), Developments and Applications of Non-Newtonian
Flows, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), New York 1995,
pp. 99105.
E.V. Timofeeva, W. Yu, D.M. France, D. Singh, J.L. Routbort, Base uid and temperature effects on the heat transfer characteristics of SiC in ethylene glycol/H2O and
H2O nanouids, J. Appl. Phys. 109 (1) (2011) 014914.
D.K. Agarwal, A. Vaidyanathan, S. Sunil Kumar, Investigation on convective heat
transfer behaviour of keroseneAl2O3 nanouid, Appl. Therm. Eng. 84 (2015)
6473.
S. Mossaz, J.-A. Gruss, S. Ferrouillat, J. Skrzypski, D. Getto, O. Poncelet, P. Berne, Experimental study on the inuence of nanoparticle PCM slurry for high temperature
on convective heat transfer and energetic performance in a circular tube under imposed heat ux, Appl. Therm. Eng. 81 (2015) 388398.
H. Chen, W. Yang, Y. He, Y. Ding, L. Zhang, C. Tan, A.A. Lapkin, D.V. Bavykin, Heat
transfer and ow behaviour of aqueous suspensions of titanate nanotubes
(nanouids), Powder Technol. 183 (1) (2008) 6372.
G. Saha, M.C. Paul, Numerical analysis of the heat transfer behaviour of water based
Al2O3 and TiO2 nanouids in a circular pipe under the turbulent ow condition, Int.
Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 56 (2014) 96108.

32

W.H. Azmi et al. / International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer 76 (2016) 2432

[39] C.T. Nguyen, F. Desgranges, G. Roy, N. Galanis, T. Mar, S. Boucher, H. Angue Mintsa,
Temperature and particle-size dependent viscosity data for water-based nanouids
hysteresis phenomenon, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 28 (6) (2007) 14921506.
[40] M. Hemmat Esfe, S. Saedodin, O. Mahian, S. Wongwises, Thermophysical properties,
heat transfer and pressure drop of COOH-functionalized multi walled carbon nanotubes/water nanouids, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transfer 58 (2014) 176183.
[41] R.S. Vajjha, D.K. Das, D.P. Kulkarni, Development of new correlations for convective
heat transfer and friction factor in turbulent regime for nanouids, Int. J. Heat Mass
Transf. 53 (2122) (2010) 46074618.
[42] H. Blasius, Das Aehnlichkeitsgesetz bei Reibungsvorgngen in Flssigkeiten,
Mitteilungen ber Forschungsarbeiten auf dem Gebiete des Ingenieurwesens, 131,
1913.

[43] T.G. Mezger, The Rheology Handbook, third ed. Vincentz Network, Hanover,
Germany, 2011.
[44] P. Samira, Z. Saeed, S. Motahare, K. Mostafa, Pressure drop and thermal performance
of CuO/ethylene glycol (60%)water (40%) nanouid in car radiator, Korean J. Chem.
Eng. 32 (4) (2015) 609616.
[45] J. Lee, I. Mudawar, Assessment of the effectiveness of nanouids for single-phase
and two-phase heat transfer in micro-channels, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 50 (34)
(2007) 452463.
[46] K.V. Sharma, L.S. Sundar, P.K. Sarma, Estimation of heat transfer coefcient and friction factor in the transition ow with low volume concentration of Al2O3 nanouid
owing in a circular tube and with twisted tape insert, Int. Commun. Heat Mass
Transfer 36 (5) (2009) 503507.