Massive improvements in the thermophysical properties of nanofluids over conventional fluids have led to the rapid evolution of using multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) in the field of heat transfer. In this study, the heat transfer and entropy generation abilities of MWCNTs/GNPs hybrid nanofluids were explored. Experiments on forced convective flow through a brass microtube with 300 µm inner diameter and 0.27 m in length were performed under uniform heat flux. MWCNTs/GNPs hybrid nanofluids were developed by adding 0.035 wt.% GNPs to MWCNTs water-based nanofluids with mass fractions of 0.075–0.125 wt.%. The range of the Reynolds number in this experiment was maintained at Re = 200–500. Results showed that the conventional approach for predicting the heat transfer coefficient was applicable for microtubes. The heat transfer coefficient increased markedly with the use of MWCNTs and MWCNTs/GNPs nanofluids, with increased pressure dropping by 12.4%. Results further showed a reduction by 37.5% in the total entropy generation rate in microtubes for hybrid nanofluids. Overall, MWCNTs/GNPs hybrid nanofluids can be used as alternative fluids in cooling systems for thermal applications.

The applications of porous media burners are of often keen interest to researchers because of many modern advantages, such as high thermal efficiency, stable flame and low emission rate. In this current experimental work, a microburner was made built to achieve both surface and submerged flame for three different thicknesses of reaction layers. A reaction layer of discrete alumina with a predefined thickness of preheat layer was used for combustion. Reaction layer was accordingly replaced with different thicknesses of 10mm, 20mm and 30mm. This work mainly aimed to show burner behavior with increase in thickness of reaction layer thus suggesting the optimum equivalence ratio from best burner performance. Interesting and unique behavior of the burner was encountered for each thickness of the reaction layer. Highest surface temperature was found out with 10mm of reaction layer, while highest wall temperature was incorporated with 20mm of reaction layer. Equivalence ratio of 0.3 is best suitable for optimum performance of the burner. Finally, thermal efficiencies were calculated for surface and submerged modes at optimum equivalence ratio. Emission parameters, such as NOx and CO were also taken into consideration.

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