Single-phase fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of nanofluid in a circular microchannel: Development of flow and heat transfer correlations

The convective heat transfer in microchannels with the use of nanofluids has proved to be a potential candidate for cooling of micro-electromechanical system devices. The current research article presents the experimental study on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of [Formula: see text]/water nanofluid in a microchannel under thermally developing laminar flow at Reynolds number ranging from 300 to 1000. The experimental set-up of a circular microchannel test section with an inner diameter of [Formula: see text] and length of [Formula: see text] is fabricated to conduct the experimental study. The effect of nanoparticle concentration ([Formula: see text]), Reynolds number ([Formula: see text]) on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of [Formula: see text]/water nanofluid have been measured and compared with that of distilled water (DW). The results indicate that the maximum enhancement in local heat transfer coefficient is achieved up to [Formula: see text], while friction factor is achieved up to [Formula: see text] for [Formula: see text]/water nanofluid with nanoparticle concentration of [Formula: see text] as compared to DW. The results showed that the performance evaluation criterion of [Formula: see text]/water nanofluid is greater than unity ([Formula: see text]), implying the benefits of nanofluids as compared to DW. Moreover, the predicted data obtained by the present proposed correlations for friction factor and local Nusselt number using [Formula: see text]/water nanofluid show reasonably good agreement with the deviations of [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], respectively, with the numerical data as compared to the predicted data obtained by the existing correlations available in the literature.