Study of Stability Behaviour of Single Phase Natural Circulation Loop Using Nanofluids

ABSTRACT

Studies on nanofluids are gaining lot of importance in the recent times to explore their potential applications in different heat removal systems. In the similar framework, the authors have been investigating the effect of nanofluids on single phase natural circulation loop induced by a heating-cooling system. Such system, when operates under the horizontal heater and horizontal cooler configuration, is prone to flow instabilities giving rise to large amplitude oscillations. In present work, several experiments have been conducted to demonstrate mainly the use of metal oxide nanofluids to suppress the instabilities and enhance the mass flow rate in a natural circulation loop. These findings were demonstrated experimentally by comparing the steady state flow rates and instability of natural circulation behaviour of water with that of different nanofluids (Al₂O₃, CuO, TiO₂ and SiO₂) having different particle sizes and concentrations. The experimental findings show that, not only the instabilities were suppressed in case of nanofluids, but also there was increase in the steady state mass flow rate for corresponding power than in case of water alone.

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