Measuring convective heat transfer coefficients of nanofluids over a circular fine wire maintaining a constant temperature

This paper describes a measuring apparatus that can be used to appraise the effectiveness of nanofluids as new heat transfer enhancing fluids. A couple of apparatuses using fine hot wires as sensors have been proposed for this purpose; however, they have a technical weakness related to the uncertain working conditions of the sensor. The present method used the convective heat transfer coefficient from a hot wire as an indication of the heat transfer effectiveness of the nanofluid, where the temperature of the wire remains constant during the experiment. The operating principle and experimental procedure are explained in detail, and the validity of the system is tested with pure base fluids. The effects of particle concentration, velocity, and temperature on the heat transfer coefficients of the nanofluids are discussed comprehensively using the experimental data for graphite nanolubrication oil