Numerical Investigation of Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Characteristics of Al2O3 Nanofluid In A Double Tube Heat Exchanger With Turbulator Insertion

One of the primary objectives associated with the double tube heat exchanger is to enhance the heat transfer rate and improve the overall system performance. A promising approach to achieve these improvements involves combining turbulator insertion and nanofluid techniques. This study presents a numerical investigation that examines the impact of Al2O3-water nanofluid within the inner tube, along with turbulator insertion in the form of square-shaped ribs, on the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics of the double tube heat exchanger. The findings indicate that an increase in the volume fraction of nanofluid leads to an enhanced heat transfer rate. Additionally, reducing the spacing between the turbulator ribs in the double tube heat exchanger results in an increase of up to 50% in the Nusselt number compared to a heat exchanger without turbulator insertion. The maximum performance evaluation criterion achieved in this study is 1.05