Laminar Convective Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop of TiO2/Turbine Oil Nanofluid

To improve heat transfer properties of turbine oil, TiO2 nanoparticles were added and a new nanofluid which has not been yet reported in articles was produced. An experimental apparatus was designed and constructed to measure both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of flowing nanofluids. Results clearly indicated that adding TiO2 nanoparticles increased both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. A third parameter named performance index was evaluated to determine the possibility of practically using such nanofluid. All the obtained performance indexes were greater than 1 which emphasizes that using the TiO2/turbine oil nanofluid with volume concentration less than 0.50% leads to higher quality turbine oil.