Investigation on thermal performance of electric heaters with nanofluids

Dan Zheng, Zhengjia Zhai, Wei Wang, Jin Wang, Milan Vujanović, Bengt Sundén

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This work aims to analyze thermal performance for an electric heater filled with different nanofluids, including SiO2-water nanofluid, Fe3O4-water nanofluid, and Cu-water nanofluid. The effect of nanoparticle concentration (0.1–2.0 wt%) is also discussed. Results indicate that Cu-water nanofluids show better heat transfer performance than the other nanofluids. The highest heating efficiency for the external environment is observed for Cu-water nanofluids with 2.0 wt% mass fraction. Cu nanoparticles show some shortcomings, such as high costs and easy oxidation. With action of a magnetic field, magnetic nanoparticles destroy the flow boundary layer close to the wall. Thermal performance of Fe3O4-water nanofluid under magnetic fields shows an ambient equilibrium temperature of 65.6 °C, which is 0.1 °C lower than that of Cu-water nanofluid. Although the heating time of Fe3O4-water nanofluid (108 min) is longer than that of Cu-water nanofluid, it provides an alternative material with low costs to achieve the high-efficient heating. This research provides economical and valuable methods to improve thermal performance of electric heating structures, and it is a promising way to reduce carbon emission from burning fossil fuels for heating supply in cities and villages, particularly if the electricity is from renewable resources.

Original languageEnglish
Article number123966
JournalFuel
Volume320
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Energy Engineering

Free keywords

  • Electric heater
  • Ferrofluid
  • Heating efficiency
  • Magnetic field
  • Nanofluid

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