A Comparative Study on Heat Transfer Augmentation in Corrugated Plate Heat Exchangers Using Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles

Heat Exchangers (HEs) are essential for facilitating heat transfer between fluids at different temperatures. HEs use passive, active, or mixed heat transfer enhancement strategies to increase efficiency, reduce surface area, and reduce pumping power. Heat exchangers are proposed for energy savings. Among these, passive techniques are more cost-effective as they do not require external power input. These methods primarily aim to enhance the surface area, fluid residence time, and thermal conductivity, often through the use of nanofluids. Better heat transmission and turbulence are provided by Corrugated Plate Heat Exchangers (CPHEs) when compared with flat plate heat exchangers at low Reynolds numbers because of their corrugationsand occupy less space because of their high surface area to volume ratio. The Wavy Corrugated Plate Heat Exchangers (WCPHEs) that are the subject of this study provide increased turbulence and surface area. Zinc oxide nanofluids (ZnONF) at volumetric concentrations of 0.01%, 0.03%, 0.05%, 0.07%, and 0.09% were used in experiments to assess the heat transfer capability, with water serving as the base fluid. Three corrugation angles—10°, 30°, and 50°—as well as 0.5,1,1.5 lpm nanofluid flow rates were used for the studies. The findings demonstrated that, in contrast to H2O as the test fluid, the transmission of heat rate rose to all volume fractions and flow rates of the nanofluid. A 30° corrugation angle, a 1.5 lpm flow rate, and a 0.01% volume fraction of ZnO nanoparticles produced the greatest heat transfer of 2430.55W. Additionally, it was shown that heat transfer rose from 10° to 30° as the corrugation angle increased but reduced at 50°.