Abstract
The turbulent heat transfer enhancement of microfluid as a heat transfer medium in a tube was investigated. Within the Reynolds number ranging from 7000 to 23,000, heat transfer, friction loss and thermal performance characteristics of graphite, Al2O3 and CuO microfluid with the particle volume fraction of 0.25%−1.0% and particle size of 5 μm have been respectively tested. The results showed that the thermal performance of microfluids was better than water. In addition, the graphite microfluid had the best turbulent convective heat transfer effect among several microfluids. To further investigate the effect of graphite particle size on thermal performance, the heat transfer characteristics of the graphite microfluid with the size of 1 μm was also tested. The results showed that the thermal performance of the particle size of 1 μm was better than that of 5 μm. Within the investigated range, the maximum value of the thermal performance of graphite microfluid was found at a 1.0% volume fraction, a Reynolds number around 7500 and a size of 1 μm. In addition, the simulation results showed that the increase of equivalent thermal conductivity of the microfluid and the turbulent kinetic energy near the tube wall, by adding the microparticles, caused the enhancement of heat transfer; therefore, the microfluid can be potentially used to enhance turbulent convective heat transfer.