International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 10341040

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Thermal performance analysis of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant

I.M. Mahbubul a, A. Saadah a, R. Saidur b,, M.A. Khairul a, A. Kamyar c
a

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Centre of Research Excellence in Renewable Energy, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, 31261, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
c
School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland, QLD 4072, Australia
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 13 August 2014
Received in revised form 12 February 2015
Accepted 12 February 2015
Available online 10 March 2015
Keywords:
Nanouid
Thermal conductivity
Viscosity
Density
Specic heat
Coefcient of performance

a b s t r a c t
Nowadays, nanouids are being considered as an efcient heat transfer uid in various thermal
applications. Refrigerant-based nanouids, termed as nanorefrigerants, have the potential to improve
the heat transfer performances of refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. This study analyzed the
thermophysical properties and their effects on the coefcient of performance (COP) resulted by addition
of 5 vol.% Al2O3 nanoparticles into R-134a refrigerant at temperatures of 283308 K. The analysis has
been done for a uniform mass ux through a horizontal smooth tube using established correlations.
The results indicate that the thermal conductivity, dynamic viscosity, and density of Al2O3/R-134a
nanorefrigerant increased about 28.58%, 13.68%, and 11%, respectively compared to the base refrigerant
(R-134a) for the same temperature. On the other hand, specic heat of nanorefrigerant is slightly lower
than that of R-134a. Moreover, Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant shows the highest COP of 15%, 3.2%, and
2.6% for thermal conductivity, density, and specic heat, respectively compared to R-134a refrigerant.
Therefore, application of nanoparticles in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems is promising to
improve the performances of the systems.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
A nanorefrigerant is one kind of nanouid for which the base
uid is a refrigerant. Like other nanouids, it is a mixture of
refrigerant and solid particles. Nanorefrigerant is being considered
as a potential to enhance the thermal performance of refrigeration
and air-conditioning systems because of the higher thermal conductivity of nanoparticles. Three main benets have been reported
when using nanorefrigerants in a refrigerator [1]; Firstly, use of
nanoparticles can improve the solubility between the lubricant
and the refrigerant [2]. Secondly, nanoparticles can enhance the
thermal conductivity as well as heat transfer characteristics of a
refrigerant [3,4]. Finally, reduction of the friction coefcient and
wear rate is observed in nanorefrigerants compared to regular
refrigerants [5]. It is hoped that, the addition of nanoparticles into
conventional refrigerants will improve the heat transfer performance of refrigeration systems [6,7]. Almost all vapor compression
refrigeration systems use lubricating oil making it possible to use
nanoparticles in refrigeration systems in the form of a nanoparticles/oil suspension [8]. The existence of nanoparticles in oil
suspension inuences the overall performance of the refrigeration
system
since
nanoparticles
signicantly
enhance
the
Corresponding author. Tel.: +966 13 860 4628; fax: +966 13 860 7312.
E-mail addresses: saidur@kfupm.edu.sa, saidur912@yahoo.com (R. Saidur).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2015.02.038
0017-9310/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

thermophysical properties of the refrigerant. Consequently, energy

consumption will be decreased along with reduction in emissions
that lead to global warming and greenhouse-gas effects.
Thermophysical properties are the performance parameters
that need to be analyzed in order to select the most suitable option
for the energy conversion systems. Thermal conductivity is affected by temperature and density. High thermal conductivity of the
refrigerant is crucial in order to gain the maximum output from
the system [9]. Addition of nanoparticles with high thermal conductivity and increasing their concentration can enhance the thermal conductivity of a nanorefrigerant [10,11]. Viscosity is another
property that affects the pumping power and pressure drop parameters [12]. It is known that pressure drop plays a signicant role
when designing and optimizing refrigeration systems [13].
Mahbubul et al. [14] studied the viscosity of R123-TiO2 nanorefrigerant for different nanoparticle volume concentrations using
Brinkmans model [15], and concluded that pressure drop increases
signicantly with the increase of viscosity. Moreover, rheological
behavior of Al2O3/R141b nanorefrigerant was studied and the mixture was found to behave in a non-Newtonian way [16]. As like viscosity, density of a uid also has inuences on the pressure drop
and pumping power capacity. A solid substance has a higher density in comparison to a liquid; therefore, the density of a nanouid
is found to be higher by increasing the concentration of nanoparticles within a uid. Mahbubul et al. [17] measured the density of

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I.M. Mahbubul et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 10341040

Nomenclature
A
bd
Bo
Co
Cp
COP
D
E
g
G
h
hfg
HTC
k
K
l
L
_
m
Nu
P
Pr
q
Q out
r
rp
Re
S
t
T
V

heat transfer surface area (m2)

bubble departure diameter (m)
boiling number
convection number
specic heat capacity (J/kg K)
coefcient of performance
tube diameter (m)
enhancement factor
gravitational acceleration (m/s2)
mass ux (kg/m2 s)
heat transfer coefcient (W/m2 K)
latent heat (kJ/kg)
heat transfer coefcient (W/m2 K)
thermal conductivity (W/m K)
orice constant
tube length (m)
temperature lift (K)
mass ow rate (kg/s)
Nusselt number
pressure (Pa)
Prandtl number
heat ux (W/m2)
heat output (W)
radius of the tube (m)
radius of the nanoparticles (m)
Reynolds number
suppression factor
thickness of interfacial layer (m)
temperature (K)
volumetric ow rate (m3/s)

Al2O3/R141b nanorefrigerant and found that density increases linearly with increasing the volume concentration and decreases with
increasing the temperature. Specic heat is a measure of energy
storage capability of the working uid. Fluids with large specic
heat require signicant amounts of energy input to sensibly
increase or decrease their temperature. Specic heat is proportional to the change of internal energy of a system, thus when the temperature of the system increases, the uctuation of molecules will
be intensied and a higher heat capacity will be induced, as more
energy levels can be lled up. This will be the reason of higher heat
transfer rates. However, there is no literature available on the
specic heat capacity of nanorefrigerants.
High COP and environmental friendliness are considered as the
major selection criteria of a refrigerant. There are some studies
available about the pool boiling [18], ow boiling [19], convective
heat transfer [20,21], pressure drop [22,23], migration characteristics [24,25], and energy performance [1,6] of the nanorefrigerants.
To the best of authors knowledge, there are no studies available
discussing the effect of thermophysical properties on the COP of
a system using nanorefrigerants. The objective of this study is to
investigate the effect of temperature on thermal conductivity, viscosity, density, and specic heat of Al2O3 nanoparticles suspended
in R-134a refrigerant. Moreover, the effects of changed thermophysical properties of nanorefrigerant on the COP are investigated
and compared with that of R-134a refrigerant.

W net
x
X tt

Greek symbols
/
particle volume concentration (%)
q
density (kg/m3)
l
dynamic viscosity (N s/m2)
r
surface tension (N/m)
Subscripts
cond
condenser
DB
pool boiling
down
downstream
evap
evaporator
in
input
l
interfacial layer/nanolayer
Npl
no pressure losses
nr
nanorefrigerant
p
nanoparticle
r
refrigerant
s
saturation
SA
single phase
up
upstream
v
vapor
Prex
D

gradient

properties of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant were calculated using

Microsoft Excel 2010 based on the established correlations from
literature.
2.1. Thermal conductivity
Thermal conductivity of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant was
predicted using the Sitprasert et al. [29] correlation. This model
considers the effects of nanoparticle volume concentration,
nanoparticle size, and temperature-dependent interfacial layer.

knr

kp  kl /kl 2b31  b3 1 kp 2kl b31 /b3 kl  kr kr 

b31 kp 2kl  kp  kl /b31 b3  1
1

where,

b1

t
rp

b1 1

1a

t
2rp

1b

Table 1
Properties of Al2O3 nanoparticles [26].

2. Experimental method
The properties of Al2O3 nanoparticles and R-134a refrigerant are
shown in Table 1 and Table 2, respectively. The analysis was carried out considering 5 vol.% of Al2O3 nanoparticles in R-134a refrigerant with the temperature range of 283308 K. Thermophysical

total work (W)

mass quality
Martinelli parameter

Properties

Value

Radius
Molecular mass
Density
Thermal conductivity
Specic heat

15 nm
101.00 kg/kmol
3880 kg/m3
40* W/m K
729 J/kg K

Source: Wang and Mujumdar [27].

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I.M. Mahbubul et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 10341040

Table 2
Properties of R-134a refrigerant [28].
Temperature
(K)

Pressure
(Mpa)

Liquid Density
(kg/m3)

Vapor density
(kg/m3)

Liquid Specic heat

(kJ/kg k)

Liquid Thermal conductivity

(W/m k)

Liquid Viscosity
(mPa s)

Surface Tension
(N/m)

283
288
293
298
303
308

0.41461
0.48837
0.57171
0.66538
0.77020
0.88698

1261.0
1243.4
1225.3
1206.7
1187.5
1167.5

20.226
23.758
27.780
32.350
37.535
43.416

1.3704
1.3869
1.4049
1.4246
1.4465
1.4709

0.087618
0.085444
0.083284
0.081134
0.078992
0.076853

0.23487
0.22066
0.20737
0.19489
0.18313
0.17200

0.010138
0.009441
0.008756
0.008081
0.007417
0.006766

The thickness and the thermal conductivity of the interfacial

layer are calculated from Eqs. (1c) and (1d),

t 0:01T  73r 0:35

p
kl C

1c

t
kr
rp

1d

where C 30 is a constant for Al2O3 nanoparticles.

COP is equal to heat output divided by total work input.

COP

Q out
W net;in

Q out h A DT

COP

 h


i
h
i0:67  0:581
0:326
qv
qbd
0:533
r
A DT
E 0:023 kDr Re0:8 Pr0:4 S 207 kbd
Pr
Ts
q
W net;in
3

2a

where, Q out is the heat output, h is the HTC, A is the heat transfer
area, and DT is the temperature difference.
Eq. (2b) introduces the relationship between force convective
boiling heat transfer of pure refrigerant and the output heat, taken
from Wen et al. [30]

h E hDB S hSA

 h


i
h
i0:67  0:581
0:326
qv
0:533
qbd
nr
E 0:023 kDnr Re0:8 Pr0:4 S 207 kbd
Pr
A DT
Ts
q
COP nr

W net;in
4

2.2. Viscosity

2b

In this equation, E is the enhancement factor, S is the suppression factor, hDB is the pool boiling HTC obtained from the correlation by Dittus and Boelter [31]. hSA is the single phase heat
transfer suggested by Stephan and Abdelsalam [32]. Eqs. (2c)
(2f) express all four parameters.

E C 1 BoC 2 X Ctt3

2c

k 0:8 0:4
Re Pr
D

2d

The Reynolds number was calculated using, Re GD

l and Prandtl
number by Pr C Pkl. Here, mass ux,G, and tube diameter, D, were
assumed to be 150 kg/m2 sand 6 mm, respectively.

S C 4 CoC5

2e


hSA 207

temperature corresponding to the test section pressure for the ow

boiling. The constants C 1 to C 5 in Eqs. (2c) and (2e), were obtained
by an iteration process to minimize the errors between the theoretical calculated HTC and experimental results [30]. The constant
values are shown in Table 3.
Substituting the above equations, the nal relationship between
COP and thermal conductivity for refrigerant and nanorefrigerant
are expressed in forms of Eqs. (3) and (4), respectively:

Eq. (2a) shows the basic equation used to calculate the heat
transfer coefcient (HTC).

hDB 0:023

h
i0:5
bd 0:0146 a gq2rq
with a 35 . T s in Eq. (2f) is the saturation

k qbd
bd kT s

0:674 

qv
q

0:581

Pr0:533

2f

Referring to Eq. (2c), boiling number can be found from,

Bo h q G, while X tt is the Martinelli parameter dened by
fg
h
i0:9  0:5  0:1
qv
l
X tt 1x
. In Eqs. (2e) and (2f), Convection numx
q
lv
h
i0:8  0:5
qv
1x
and Bubble departure diameter,
ber, Co x
q

The viscosity of nanorefrigerant was calculated using Brinkman

model [15] in the following form:

lnr lr

1  /2:5

where, lnr and lr are the effective viscosity of nanorefrigerant and

pure refrigerant, respectively. / is the particle volume fraction
which is 0.05 (5%) in our case.
Klein et al. [33] analyzed the impact of pressure drop on the
refrigeration performance using liquid-suction heat exchanger.
They proposed a dimensionless correlation that indicates COP in
terms of pressure drop as follow:



COP
DP
1  2:37  0:0471L 3:01  104 L2 
COPnpl
Pev ap

where, L is the temperature lift which equals to T cond  T ev ap and

Pev ap is the evaporator pressure.
Pressure drop of refrigerant in the compressor was calculated
using HagenPoiseuille equation [34]. In this analysis, refrigerant
was assumed nearly incompressible. HagenPoiseuille model that
is used to calculate the pressure drop for a uid ow through a
cylindrical tube, is expressed as follows:

DP

8llV
pr 4

6a

Replacing pressure drop in Eq. (6) by Eq. (6a) gives a new relationship between COP and viscosity:

Table 3
The constants in Eqs. (2c) and (2e) [30].
C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

53.64

0.314

0.839

0.927

0.319

COP
1  2:37  0:0471L 3:01  104 L2
COPnpl

8llV
pPev ap r4


7

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1037

2.3. Density
The density of nanouid was calculated using Pak and Cho [35]
correlation shown in Eq. (8):

qnr /qp 1  /qr

Performance of the system is dependent on the mass ow rate

of the refrigerant. This was suggested by Bukac et al. [36] according
to the following relation:

COP

_ Dh E
m
W net;in

where, DhE is the change of enthalpy in the evaporator.

The single-phase orice equation [37] was used to calculate the
mass ow rate through a short tube:

q
_ K A 2g qPup  Pdown
m

9a

To obtain the relationship between COP and density, the mass

ow rate through a short tube in Eq. (9a) has been substituted into
Eq. (9). The nal equation is indicated as follows:

p
DhE K A 2g qPup  Pdown
COP
W net;in

10

2.4. Specic heat

For a given particle volume fraction, specic heat of a nanorefrigerant can be calculated using the correlation suggested by
Pak and Cho [35].

C p;nr /C p;p 1  /C p;r

11

where, C p;p is the specic heat of Al2O3 nanoparticles and C p;r is the
specic heat of R-134a refrigerant.
Substituting Prandtl numbers in Eqs. (3), (4) by expressions of
specic heat, viscosity and thermal conductivity, the relationship
between COP and specic heat for the refrigerant and nanorefrigerant can be obtained from Eqs. (12) and (13), respectively.
COP

Fig. 1. Variation of thermal conductivity as a function of temperature.

 h


i
  1 0:207 hqbdi0:674 q 0:581
0:6
0:4
0:533
v
S 207
A DT
E 0:023
kr Re0:8 C p;r lr
C p;r lr
Ts
q
D
bd
kr
W net;in
12

refrigerant, thermal conductivity was decreased with increasing

temperature. This is due to the fact that when temperature increases, the liquid is evaporated, which causes the atoms to be positively charged and vibrate with greater amplitude. This is why the
thermal conductivity for any substance is lower at the vapor state
compared with the liquid state. The increments in the thermal conductivity of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant are from 8.12% to 28.58%
for 283 K to 308 K, respectively.
Fig. 2 demonstrates the effect of thermal conductivity on COP of
the refrigeration system at different temperatures for R-134a
refrigerant and Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant. As noted from
Fig. 2, COP increases with the increase of temperature (calculated
using Eqs. (3) and (4), respectively). A maximum rise of 15% in
COP is observed for the nanorefrigerant compared to that of the
refrigerant due to its higher thermal conductivity. Since thermal
conductivity is proportional to HTC, HTC of the nanorefrigerant
with higher thermal conductivity is larger than that of the uid
with lower thermal conductivity at the same Nusselt number [3].
It can be stated that addition of more particles contributes to the

 h

i   0:207 h
i0:674  0:581
0:6
qv
qbd
1
E 0:023
kr Re0:8 C p;nr lr 0:4 S 207
C p;nr lr 0:533
A DT
Ts
q
D
bd
kr
COP nr

W net;in
13

3. Result and discussion

3.1. Thermal conductivity
Fig. 1 shows the variation of thermal conductivity of refrigerant
and nanorefrigerant with temperature ranging from 283 to 308 K.
It can be seen in Fig. 1 that, the thermal conductivity of Al2O3/
R-134a nanorefrigerant was linearly increased with increasing
temperature, while for pure refrigerant, thermal conductivity
moderately decreased with increasing temperature. As the thermal
conductivity of Al2O3 nanoparticle is higher than the base uid
(refrigerant) therefore, the thermal conductivity of the nanorefrigerant was found to be higher than pure refrigerant [3]. Again, with
the rise of temperature, the Brownian motion of nanoparticles will
intensify and the contribution of micro convection in heat transport will increase, which results in the augmentation of thermal
conductivity [9]. Therefore, the thermal conductivity of nanorefrigerant tends to increase with increasing temperature. For pure

Fig. 2. Effect of the thermal conductivity of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant on COP at

different temperatures.

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I.M. Mahbubul et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 10341040

increased effective surface area for heat transfer. As a result, the

inherently greater thermal conductivity of nanoparticles enhances
the thermal conductivity of the nanorefrigerant [9]. This is also the
reason for maximization of HTC and minimization of entropy generation rate i.e. improvement in exergy efciency. Since higher
energy levels are more easily accessed, the heat transfer rate
should be increased. As a result, the overall COP of the system will
increase [38].
3.2. Viscosity
Fig. 3 shows the comparison between viscosities of Al2O3/
R-134a nanorefrigerant and R-134a refrigerant in the temperature
range of 283 K to 308 K. Viscosity of refrigerant and nanorefrigerant
decrease linearly with the increase of temperature. The viscosity of
nanorefrigerant is observed to be slightly higher compared to that
of pure refrigerant. The plot outlines the considerable effect of temperature on the viscosity of nanorefrigerant. When temperature of
uid increases, the inter-particle and intermolecular adhesion
forces are decreased [39] and as a result the viscosity of uid is also
reduced. This is a natural phenomenon that in most cases, viscosity
of a liquid is decreases with the increase of temperature. When
temperature of any substance increases, the movement among
the molecules is also intensied. For the higher movement of
the molecules, the resistance to ow of a material (referred to as
viscosity) is decreases. Besides this, a higher temperature of
nanorefrigerant intensies the Brownian motion of nanoparticles,
and as a result, the viscosity of nanorefrigerant is decreased [40].
Moreover, the viscosity of nanorefrigerant was found to be 13.68%
higher than that of the base uid (R-134a refrigerant).
Fig. 4 shows the effect of viscosity on COP for both Al2O3/R-134a
nanorefrigerant and R-134a refrigerant at different temperatures.
In both cases, COP was increased with increasing temperature. It
is essential to study the ow resistance of the nanorefrigerant in
addition to the heat transfer improvement characteristic in order
to be able to utilize the nanorefrigerant in a refrigerator system
in a feasible way. The R-134a refrigerant and Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerants with 5 vol.% concentration are considered for the calculation of the pressure drop. The COP of refrigerant in terms of
viscosity is calculated using Eq. (7). Apparently, no substantial
addition to the pressure drop is caused for the nanorefrigerant in
all successions of the enquiry, which exposes that nanorefrigerant
will not result in an additional penalty as a rise of pumping power

The change in density with respect to refrigerants temperature

has been shown in Fig. 5 for R-134a and Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant. Eq. (8) was used to calculate the density of nanorefrigerant.
The density of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant and R-134a refrigerant are moderately decreased with the increase of temperature.
It is found that, Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant exhibits
approximately 11% higher density compared to R-134a refrigerant
at the same temperature. Density is dened as the mass divided by
volume. The atoms of the refrigerant are starting to vibrate with
increasing temperature. Hence, the volume of the refrigerant
increases and the density will linearly decrease with the increase
of temperature. Moreover, the density of solid particles is much
higher than that of liquids or gases (in this case the density of

Fig. 3. Variation of viscosity as a function of temperature.

Fig. 5. Variation of density as a function of temperature.

Fig. 4. Effect of the viscosity of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant on COP at different

temperatures.

[41]. As a result, though Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant has higher

viscosity compared to R-134a refrigerant, it shows better COP ratio
compared to R-134a refrigerant.
3.3. Density

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1039

Al2O3 and R-134a are about 3880 and 1220 kg/m3, respectively)
causing the mixture of solidliquid suspension to show higher
density compared to the base uid. This is why the density of
Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant is found to be higher than the
R-134a refrigerant.
The effect of density on the COP at different temperatures has
been shown in Fig. 6. COP for both Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant
and R-134a refrigerant are noted to decrease with the increase of
temperature. The COP of nanorefrigerant is about 3.2% higher than
that of R-134a refrigerant due to the high density of nanorefrigerant. COP and mass ow rate are calculated by Eq. (9) and (9a). From
the equations, the COP is directly proportional to mass ow rate,
and the mass ow rate of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant is higher
than the pure refrigerant due to its higher density. Therefore,
higher COP is observed for the nanorefrigerant. In a centrifugal
compressor, pressure rise is related to the density of the refrigerant. A high value of density results in the high pressure rise which
indirectly reduces the overall pressure drop. This, in turn, will
improve the system performance.
3.4. Specic heat

Fig. 7. Variation of specic heat as a function of temperature.

The specic heat of both Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant and

R-134a refrigerant linearly increase with the rise of temperature
from 283 K to 308 K as shown in Fig. 7. The specic heat of nanorefrigerant was calculated from Eq. (11). For a particular volume fraction, analysis showed that the minimum specic heat belonged to
the nanorefrigerant. This decrease is due to the lower specic heat
of added particles. Moreover, higher specic heat of the base uid
is the reason why the specic heat of the mixture exceeds that of
the nanoparticles. Therefore, the specic heat of the solidliquid
mixture becomes lower than the specic heat value of the base uid. Specic heat capacity of R-134a refrigerant is 2.4% higher compared to Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant. It is because an increase in
heat capacity will increase internal energy of the system. The
increment in temperature will cause the liquid to uctuate about
its equilibrium value to a higher extent, and then the heat capacity
of the system will increase, as more energy levels will be lled up.
Most researchers agree upon the fact that specic heat capacity of
nanouids are lower than that of the base uids [42].
Fig. 8 demonstrates the effect of specic heat on the COP of a
refrigeration system considering at different temperatures. The
value of COP linearly rises with the increase of temperature for
Fig. 8. Effect of the specic heat of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant on COP at
different temperatures.

both Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant and R-134a refrigerant.

Approximately, a 2.6% higher COP was noticed for nanorefrigerant
compared to R-134a refrigerant. This parameter is increased
tremendously with increasing the output temperature.
Refrigeration systems operated with nanorefrigerant provide more
efciency due to their higher output temperature. The specic reason for higher output temperature is the more amounts of
nanoparticles in the base uid. As we know, specic heat is dened
as, the heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of a
substance by one unit of temperature. It is clear from the denition of specic heat that any substance with lower specic heat
provides more output temperature for equal heat ow.
4. Conclusions

Fig. 6. Effect of the density of Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant on COP at different

temperatures.

In the present study, thermophysical properties of Al2O3/R-134a

nanorefrigerant and the effect of these properties on the COP with
respect to temperature have been studied. The outcomes of this
analysis could be drawn as follows.

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I.M. Mahbubul et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 85 (2015) 10341040

Thermal conductivity of the Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant was

found to increase by the increase of temperature. Approximately,
a maximum of 28.58% enhancement of thermal conductivity is
found for the nanorefrigerant compared to the base refrigerant.
Analytical results revealed that the thermal conductivity of
nanorefrigerant could enhance the COP of the refrigeration system
up to 15% in comparison with the pure refrigerant.
Both viscosity and density were found to be augmented for
Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant compared to pure refrigerant.
About 13.68% and 11% enhancements have been also found for
viscosity and density, respectively. Unlike, thermal conductivity;
dynamic viscosity and density were decreased by the increase of
temperature for Al2O3/R-134a nanorefrigerant. When considering
the viscosity, it can be concluded that the COP can be enhanced
by replacing the working uid with nanorefrigerant. COP increased
roughly by 3.2% as a function of density, for the case of
nanorefrigerant.
Specic heat capacities of refrigerant and nanorefrigerant were
also increased with increasing temperature. However, specic heat
of nanorefrigerant was found to be slightly lower than the pure
refrigerant. Nevertheless, 2.6% higher COP was observed for
nanorefrigerant due to its specic heat capacity.
We hope that this study will shed light on the effect of using
nanorefrigerants on the performance of the refrigeration systems
and encourage more future investigations in this area. More study
and experimental work are required to check the improvement of
the performance and the efciency of the refrigeration systems
using nanorefrigerants.
Conict of interest
None declared.
Acknowledgment
The authors are thankful to University of Malaya for nancial
support under the High Impact Research MoE Grant: UM.C/625/
1/HIR/MoE/ENG/40 (D000040-16001) from the Ministry of
Education Malaysia.
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