The performance of a heat pump using nanofluid (R22+TiO2) as the working fluid – an experimental study

Abstract

It has been well known that the nano-particles, including metals, oxides, carbides, or carbon nanotubes, can increase the conduction and convection coefficients and consequently, enhance the heat transfer. Using nanofluids as working fluids in the refrigeration, air-conditioning and heat pump systems has attracted much attention. This work set-up a test rig to experimentally study the system performance of a heat pump with nanofluid as refrigerant, which was prepared by mixing 5wt% TiO2 with R22. Results show that adding the nano particle TiO2 didn’t changed the heat absorbed in the evaporator clearly but increase the heat released in the condenser. As a results, compared to using pure R22, when using R22 + TiO2, the COP of the cooling cycle was decreased slightly, however, the COP of the heating cycle was increased significantly increased power consumption of compression.