Morphological Effects on Natural Convection Heat Transfer of Magnesium Ferrite Ferrofluid

Abstract

This investigation intends to analyze the influence of nanoparticles morphology on the magnetic flux dependent thermo-physical properties and magnetohydrodynamic free convection heat transfer performance of water-based magnesium ferrite ferrofluid under various volume fractions. The thermo-physical parameters of the ferrofluid suspended with cube shaped particles are examined at 25 °C using KD2 pro thermal analyzer, Ostwald viscometer and specific gravity bottle under magnetic flux. The free convection heat transfer is obtained using heat pipes assisted cubical enclosure. Without the influence of magnetic flux, the thermal conductivity of the ferrofluid was improved by a maximum of 12.75% at a volume fraction of 0.15%. At the same time, the maximum viscosity and density were raised by 32.92% and 6.11% at a volume fraction of 0.20% in comparison with water. Under the influence of 350 Gauss, thermal conductivity, and viscosity of ferrofluid enhanced by 21.81% and 37.41% while the density decreased by 4.91%. It was revealed that the addition of cube-shaped magnesium ferrite particles in ferrofluid improved the thermo-physical properties. The optimum concentration for maximum heat transfer is reduced to 0.025% with the use of cube shaped particles compared to other types of nanoparticles reported in previous studies.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Mr. R. Jeyaseelan, Micro and Nano Heat Transfer Lab, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, India, for his technical support.

Disclosure statement

Authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ajith Kongassery

Ajith Kongassery received his B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Calicut University and his Masters in Thermal Systems from Calicut University. Currently, he is full-time research scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences. He has authored/coauthored 3 refereed international journals. He has also presented 3 papers in reputed international conferences. His areas of interest include heat transfer, renewable energy, and computational fluid dynamics.

Archana Sumohan Pillai

Archana Sumohan Pillai is currently an Assistant Professor and a doctoral candidate pursuing her degree (since July 2019) in the field of nanoscience from Karunya University. Her research is focused on developing NIR-absorbing magnetic nanocarriers for anti-cancer drug delivery. She pursued her M.Sc. (Int) in nanoscience and technology from Karunya University.

Muthu Vijayan Enoch

Muthu Vijayan Enoch had his undergraduate education in Nazareth Margoschis College. He graduated with M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry and M.Phil. from Annamalai University, Chidambaram. He worked with Prof. M. Swaminathan in Annamalai University and earned doctorate in the year 2005. In addition, he earned M.Tech. Nanotechnology from Anna University of Technology, Coimbatore. For his postdoctoral research, he worked with Prof. Yves Mely, University of Louis Pasteur, France. He has 14 years of teaching experience. He has published more than 110 articles in reputed scientific journals.

Li-Zhi Zhang

Li-Zhi Zhang has worked with functional materials and heat and mass transfer, with built environmental technologies since 1992. His research interests include membrane technologies; development of novel functional materials for built environment; self-cleaning surfaces. He has been the principal investigators for numerous fundings He has published more than 150 SCI papers in international journals. He has authored 5 books in advanced humidity control and heat and mass transfer. His book titled “Conjugate Heat and Mass Transfer in Heat Mass Exchanger Ducts” was published by Academic Press, Elsevier, in 2013. He has been cited more than 5000 times on SCI, and his current ISI H-index is 46.

A. Brusly Solomon

A. Brusly Solomon is currently an Associate Professor (since July 2018) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences (KITS), Coimbatore. He joined as Research Associate in the Dean Research office of the KITS in the year 2006. He received his doctorate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering from Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore in 2014. His research focused on the development of phase change cooling devices such as heat pipes and thermosyphons and vapor chambers with nanofluids and various wick materials. He pursued his post-doctoral research in the Thermo fluids Research Laboratory of Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria. He is recipient of Govt. of India, Young Scientist Award 2015 by Science and Engineering Research board, Young Achievers Award 2015 by Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, UP postdoctoral fellowship 2015 by University of Pretoria.

Mohsen Sharifpur

Mohsen Sharifpur is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria. He received his B.Eng. (Mechanical Engineering) degree from Shiraz University in Iran. He completed his M.Eng. degree in Nuclear Engineering and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (Thermal Fluid). He is the author and coauthor of more than 120 articles and conference papers. His research interests include convective multiphase flow, thermal fluid behavior of nanofluids, convection in porous media, computational fluid dynamics and fluid dynamics from nano-scale to the universe scale. He is rated as a C2 scientist by National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. He has also recognized as a Professional Engineer (Pr. Eng) by Engineering Council of South Africa.

Josua Meyer

Josua Meyer is working as a Professor in Mechanical Engineering, Stellenbosch University. Before this appointment he was a professor at the University of Pretoria. During his professor term he was the Head of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering for 20 years, and Chair of the School of Engineering for 17 years. His research has a broad focus on the thermal sciences, but with a narrower focus on heat exchangers. His heat exchanger work focuses on fundamental work in internal forced convection, the transitional flow regime, nanofluids, boiling, and condensation. On an applications level his work focuses on thermal solar, wind-and nuclear energy. He has received 11 different national teaching awards from three different universities, as well as an international award.

Deepak Tudu

Deepak Tudu is a Mechanical Engineering graduate. He received his B-Tech degree in the Department of Mechanical Engineering from Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Coimbatore in 2020.