ASET Colloquium
Nanofluids: Advance Heat Transfer Fluids
by Dr. Beena Rai (Principal Scientist, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Research Development & Design Centre, Pune)
Friday, March 7, 2014
from
to
(Asia/Kolkata)
at Colaba Campus ( AG-66 )
at Colaba Campus ( AG-66 )
Description |
Nanofluids are stable dispersions of ultrafine or nanoscale metallic, metal oxide, ceramic particles in a given base fluid. Nanofluids are known to exhibit an extraordinarily high level of thermal conductivity, and thus possess immense potential in the improvement of heat transfer and energy efficiency of several industrial applications such as cooling of IC engines, nuclear reactors, microelectronics, medical devices and defense equipments. The key issues with nanofluids however, are: (i) a robust, cost-effective and scalable method for large scale production of nanofluids has not yet been developed, (ii) stability in industrial applications is not yet established, and (iii) meaningful data in flow based heat transfer process do not exist. Our research attempts to address all these issues. We have developed an in-situ process for the preparation of stable nanofluids by wet-milling of the colloidal powders in the base fluid along with a dispersant. We have applied a novel molecular modeling based approach for the selection of an appropriate dispersant for the given base fluid and nanoparticles system. The nanofluids are tested for heat transfer efficiency under flow conditions in double pipe heat exchangers. Our nanofluids have been found to show enhancements of around 10–60% for various base fluids flown under different flow conditions. Thermal enhancements have been found to depend on the flow-rate, particle concentration, type of base fluid, and material of the thermal contact surface of the heat exchanger. Our nanofluids exhibit sustained stability for very long time (>36 months) and their stability remains unaltered for several heating-cooling cycles. We are currently working on the commercialization of these nanofluids in vehicle cooling and metal quenching applications. About the Speaker: Dr. Beena Rai, a Ph. D from National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, is recipient of prestigious Chevening Scholarship at Said Business School, University of Oxford, UK and visiting scientist at LEM, INPL-CNRS, Nancy, France. She authored 80 publications, 23 patents and 1 edited book. She is a winner of “Maha- Intrapreneur 2013 Award” instituted by Praj Industries and Symbiosis International Institute of Business and Best WILL Mentee Award 2012 given by WILL-Women in Leadership Forum, India. |
Organised by | Dr. Satyanarayana Bheesette |