Assessment of Aviation Turbine Fuel-TiO2 Nanofluid for Heat Transfer Augmentation in Rocket Engines

Nanofluids are suspensions of high thermal conductivity nanoparticles in a base fluid, and offer potential to enhance the thermal conductivity and heat transfer performance of the base fluid. The present work measures the thermo-physical properties, heat transfer performance and pressure loss characteristics of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF)-titanium oxide (TiO2) nanofluid. The experimental results show that the enhancement in the thermal conductivity is approximately 15% at a particle volume concentration of 0.3%, whereas the viscosity of the nanofluid increases upto 35% at the same particle volume concentration. Comparing the heat transfer coefficients with those of pure ATF at the same pressure drop, a maximum enhancement of 18% is observed at 0.3% particle volume concentration.