AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON COOLING PERFORMANCE OF A CAR RADIATOR USING Al2O3 -ETHYLENE GLYCOL/WATER NANOFLUID

Abstract

Nanofluids have high thermal conductivity and can be used as vehicle engine coolant. In this article, the effects of Al2O3 nanoparticles to an engine coolant were experimentally investigated and the results were compared with the results of the original coolant including 50% ethylene glycol and 50% water mixture. The nanofluid was prepared by adding 0.5% Al2O3 nanoparticles by volume. The inlet temperature of the coolant was held constant at 95 degrees C. The tests were carried out at the air inlet temperatures between 23.4-28.6 degrees C, the air velocity between 1.7-4.3 m/s, the cooling power between 2.5-15 kW and the cooling fluid flow rates between 10-25 Lpm. The results show that nanoparticles increase the cooling performance of the engine radiator. By using Al2O3 nanoparticles, cooling power of the radiator has increased up to 17.46% compared to original case.