Debabratta Bhattacharyya

This paper presents experimental results on the study of the effects of ejector adiabatic absorber on heat and mass transfer of binary nanofluid with heat transfer additives (2-ethyl-1-hexanol and gum Arabic). In this case, H₂O/lithium bromide-alumina nanofluid was suggested due to a growing interest in absorption heat transfer working fluid for solar energy application. An experimental setup — ejector test rig — was designed to study the absorption, heat, and mass transfer rate as a result of refrigerant vapour mass flow entrained by the ejector adiabatic absorber. The study was carried out at different solution mass flowrate (0.051 to 0.17 kg/s) with three prepared sample solutions, which include pure LiBr solution, LiBr-Alumina nanofluid without heat transfer additives, and LiBr-Alumina nanofluid with heat transfer additives. The absorption rate, mass transfer coefficient, heat transfer rate, and heat transfer coefficient for the three samples were reported. On the other hand, the percentage enhancements for all the parameters — at a suitable flow rate of 0.085 kg/s — due to the addition of alumina without and with heat transfer additives were recorded. The absorption rate enhancements were 25% and 96%, the enhancement rates of mass transfer coefficient recorded were 20% and 82%, the heat transfer rate enhancements were 85% and 183%, and the heat transfer coefficient enhancements obtained were 72% and 156% with addition of alumina nanoparticles only and alumina nanoparticles with heat transfer additives respectively. Material mass balance analysis suggests that mass inflow in the ejector equals to the mass outflow from the ejector, indicating a complete absorption of the entrained refrigerant vapour beyond which falling film absorption can occur due to concentration. This article also presents experimental evidence of the capability of ejector as strong adiabatic absorber, heat, and mass transfer component, which were earlier reported using numerical models.

Current binary nanofluid synthesis methods with heat transfer additives lack an understanding of the chemistry of the nanoparticle-additive-base fluid interaction, which plays a significant role in the adsorption of the surfactant on the nanoparticle surface. Consequently, this leads to the formation of aggregates within the nanofluid after a couple of days, affecting the stability of the colloidal suspension. Here, a lithium bromide-alumina salt-based nanofluid is proposed following a newly developed synthesis method including particle surface functionalisation. The new procedure developed allows the initial preparation of the nanoparticles with the surfactant as the first step (surface functionalisation) and then the preparation of the base fluid with a dispersion stabilising agent (Gum Arabic) separately. This is then followed by the dispersion of the prepared alumina nanoparticles into the base fluid, by stirring and ultrasonication to produce the final nanofluid, lithium bromide-water (LiBr-H2O)-alumina nanofluid. Until now, proper procedures have not been reported for the nanofluid synthesis combining surfactant and dispersant and the chemistry of nanoparticles-surfactant-base fluid interaction, which was thoroughly investigated in the new approach. The fluid prepared by both the conventional and new procedures was characterised and analysed simultaneously. A thermal conductivity enhancement of 3% was achieved by using the surface functionalisation method, with greater particle concentration distribution (number of particles in suspension) of 22.7% over the conventional procedure. It also achieved a 5% decrease in dynamic viscosity. On the other hand, a Mouromtseff number value between 0.7 and 1.8 was obtained for the fluid at 293 K and 373 K temperature range, indicating a strong heat transfer capability. It was apparent from the particle size and concentration distribution analysis conducted that this procedure produced a more stable nanofluid with a high distribution of nanoparticles within the fluid. This allows high improvement of thermal properties of the fluid. Graphical abstract Graphical abstract of a new procedure for nanofluid synthesis with heat transfer additives using the two-step method