Experimental investigation on the thermal conductivity and shear viscosity of viscoelastic-fluid-based nanofluids

Viscoelastic-fluid-based nanofluids with dispersion of copper (Cu) nanoparticles in viscoelastic surfactant solution (aqueous solution of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride/sodium salicylate) were prepared. A comparative study of thermal conductivity and viscosity between viscoelastic-fluid-based Cu nanofluids and distilled water based nanofluids was then performed experimentally. Different concentrations of viscoelastic base fluid and volume fraction of Cu nanoparticles were matched in order to check their influences on fluid’s thermal conductivity and viscosity. The experimental results show that the viscoelastic-fluid-based Cu nanofluids have a higher thermal conductivity than viscoelastic base fluid, and its thermal conductivity increases with increasing temperature and increasing particle volume fraction. Furthermore, the viscoelastic-fluid-based Cu nanofluid shows a non-Newtonian behavior in its viscosity, and the viscosity increases with the increase of Cu nanoparticle concentration and decrease of temperature.     

Experimental thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol and water mixture based low volume concentration of Al2O3 and CuO nanofluids

Thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol and water mixture based Al₂O₃ and CuO nanofluids has been estimated experimentally at different volume concentrations and temperatures. The base fluid is a mixture of 50:50% (by weight) of ethylene glycol and water (EG/W). The particle concentration up to 0.8% and temperature range from 15 °C–50 °C were considered. Both the nanofluids are exhibiting higher thermal conductivity compared to base fluid. Under same volume concentration and temperature, CuO nanofluid thermal conductivity is more compared to Al₂O₃ nanofluid. A new correlation was developed based on the experimental data for the estimation of thermal conductivity of both the nanofluids.     

Synthesis and thermal conductivity of Cu2O nanofluids

We apply the chemical solution method to synthesize Cu₂O nanofluids: suspensions of cuprous-oxide (Cu₂O) nanoparticles in water, and experimentally study the effect of reactant molar concentration and nanofluid temperature on the thermal conductivity. Substantial conductivity enhancement up to 24% is achievable with the synthesized nanofluids. The nanoparticle shape is variable by adjusting some synthesis parameters. The thermal conductivity shows both sensitivity and nonlinearity to the reactant molar concentration and the nanofluid temperature.     

Experimental and theoretical studies of thermal conductivity,viscosity and heat transfer coefficient of titania and alumina nanofluids

Thermal conductivity, viscosity and heat transfer coefficient of water-based alumina and titania nanofluids have been investigated. The thermal conductivity of alumina nanofluids follow the prediction of Maxwell model, whilst that of titania nanofluids is slightly lower than model prediction because of high concentration of stabilisers. None of investigated nanofluids show anomalously high thermal conductivity enhancement frequently reported in literature. The viscosity of alumina and titania nanofluids was higher than the prediction of Einstein–Batchelor model due to aggregation. Heat transfer coefficients measured in nanofluids flowing through the straight pipes are in a very good agreement with heat transfer coefficients predicted from classical correlation developed for simple fluids. Experimental heat transfer coefficients in both nanofluids as well as corresponding wall temperatures agree within ±10% with the values obtained from numerical simulations employing homogeneous flow model with effective thermo-physical properties of nanofluids. These results clearly shows that titania and alumina nano-fluids do not show unusual enhancement of thermal conductivity nor heat transfer coefficients in pipe flow frequently reported in literature.     

Experimental determination of thermal conductivity of three nanofluids and development of new correlations

Experimental investigations have been carried out for determining the thermal conductivity of three nanofluids containing aluminum oxide, copper oxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles dispersed in a base fluid of 60:40 (by mass) ethylene glycol and water mixture. Particle volumetric concentration tested was up to 10% and the temperature range of the experiments was from 298 to 363 K. The results show an increase in the thermal conductivity of nanofluids compared to the base fluids with an increasing volumetric concentration of nanoparticles. The thermal conductivity also increases substantially with an increase in temperature. Several existing models for thermal conductivity were compared with the experimental data obtained from these nanofluids, and they do not exhibit good agreement. Therefore, a model was developed, which is a refinement of an existing model, which incorporates the classical Maxwell model and the Brownian motion effect to account for the thermal conductivity of nanofluids as a function of temperature, particle volumetric concentration, the properties of nanoparticles, and the base fluid, which agrees well with the experimental data.     

Rheology and thermal conductivity of non-porous silica (SiO2) in viscous glycerol and ethylene glycol based nanofluids

Nanofluids are advanced fluids with novel properties useful for diverse applications in heat transfer. This article reports the experimental determination of thermal conductivity and viscosity for silica (SiO₂) nanofluids in ethylene glycol (EG) and glycerol (G) as base fluids. A two-step method was applied to disperse the nanoparticles in the base fluids for the particle volume concentration of 0.5–2.0%. The dispersion stability of the nanofluids was evaluated by zeta potential analysis. All the measurements were performed in the temperature interval from 30 °C to 80 °C. It was found that the thermal conductivity increases with temperature. The SiO₂-EG showed higher conductivity enhancement than SiO₂-G nanofluids. Rheological analyses confirm Newtonian behavior for silica nanofluids within shear rate range of 20–100 s^− 1. Viscosity decreases with an increase in operating temperature. The SiO₂-EG demonstrated very weak temperature dependence compared to the SiO₂-G nanofluids. Based on these measured properties, the criterion for heat transfer performance was determined. Furthermore, equations have been proposed with accuracy within ± 10% deviations to predict the thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of EG and G-based SiO₂ nanofluids.     

An experimental study on the thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of TiO2-SiO2 nanofluids in water: Ethylene glycol mixture

The hybrid nanofluid has been thriving among researchers due to its potential to improve heat transfer performance. Therefore, various studies on heat transfer properties need to be carried out to provide a better understanding on hybrid nanofluid performance. In this paper, the experimental work is focused on the thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of TiO₂-SiO₂ nanofluids in a mixture of water and ethylene glycol (EG) with volume ratio of 60:40. The stable suspension of TiO₂-SiO₂ prepared at volume concentrations of 0.5 to 3.0%. The measurements of thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity were performed at a temperature range of 30 to 80 °C by using KD2 Pro Thermal Properties Analyser and Brookfield LVDV III Ultra Rheometer, respectively. The thermal conductivity of TiO₂-SiO₂ nanofluids was improved by increasing the volume concentration and temperature with 22.8% maximum enhancement. Besides, the viscosity of TiO₂-SiO₂ nanofluids showed evidence of being influenced by nanofluid concentration and temperature. Additionally, the TiO₂-SiO₂ nanofluids behaved as a Newtonian fluid for volume concentration up to 3.0%. The properties enhancement ratio suggested that TiO₂-SiO₂ nanofluids will aid in heat transfer for concentrations of more than 1.5% and within the range of the temperature studied. A new correlation for thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of TiO₂-SiO₂ nanofluids were developed and found to be precise.     

CuS/Cu2S nanofluids: Synthesis and thermal conductivity

We apply the chemical solution method to synthesize CuS/Cu₂S nanofluids and experimentally measure their thermal conductivity. The measured thermal conductivity shows that the presence of nanoparticles can either upgrade or downgrade fluid conductivity, a phenomenon predicted by the recent thermal-wave theory of nanofluids.     

The particle thermal conductivity influence of nanofluids on thermal performance of the microtubes

The paper presents the numerical analysis on microchannel laminar heat transfer and fluid flow of nanofluids in order to evaluate the suitable thermal conductivity of the nanoparticles that results in superior thermal performances compared to the base fluid. The diameter ratio of the micro-tube was D_i/D_o = 0.3/0.5 mm with a tube length L = 100 mm in order to avoid the heat dissipation effect. The heat transfer rate was fixed to Q = 2 W. The water based Al₂O₃, TiO₂ and Cu nanofluids were considered with various volume concentrations ϕ = 1,3 and 5% and two diameters of the particles d_p = 13 nm and 36 nm. The analysis is based on a fixed Re and pumping power Π, in terms of average heat transfer coefficient and maximum temperature of the substrate. The results reveal that only the nanofluids with particles having very high thermal conductivity (λ_Cu = 401 W/m K) are justified for using in microcooling systems. Moreover, the analysis is sensitive to both the comparison criteria (Re or Π) and heat transfer parameters (h_ave or t_max).     

Enhancement of thermal conductivity with carbon nanotube for nanofluids

Thermal conductivity enhancements in ethylene glycol and synthetic engine oil in the presence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are investigated. CNT nanofluids are prepared using a two-step method. The volume concentration of CNT–ethylene glycol suspensions is below 1.0 vol.% and that of CNT–synthetic engine oil suspensions is below 2.0 vol.%. The thermal conductivities of the CNT suspensions are measured with a modified transient hot wire method. The results show that CNT–ethylene glycol suspensions have noticeably higher thermal conductivities than the ethylene glycol base fluid without CNT. The results for CNT–synthetic engine oil suspensions also exhibit the same trend. For CNT–ethylene glycol suspensions at a volume fraction of 0.01 (1 vol.%), thermal conductivity is enhanced by 12.4%. On the other hand, for CNT–synthetic engine oil suspension, thermal conductivity is enhanced by 30% at a volume fraction of 0.02 (2 vol.%). The rates of increase are, however, different for different base fluids. The CNT–synthetic engine oil suspension has a much higher enhanced thermal conductivity ratio than the CNT–ethylene glycol suspension.     

New temperature dependent thermal conductivity data for water-based nanofluids

This paper presents effective thermal conductivity measurements of alumina/water and copper oxide/water nanofluids. The effects of particle volume fraction, temperature and particle size were investigated. Readings at ambient temperature as well as over a relatively large temperature range were made for various particle volume fractions up to 9%. Results clearly show the predicted overall effect of an increase in the effective thermal conductivity with an increase in particle volume fraction and with a decrease in particle size. Furthermore, the relative increase in thermal conductivity was found to be more important at higher temperatures. Obtained results compare favorably with certain data sets and theoretical models found in current literature.     

Discussion of proposed mechanisms of thermal conductivity enhancement in nanofluids

Based upon Green–Kubo linear response theory, we use the exact expression for the heat flux vector of the base fluid plus nanoparticle system to estimate the contribution of nanoparticle Brownian motion to thermal conductivity. We find that its contribution is too small to account for abnormally high reported values. The possibility of convection caused by Brownian particles is also found to be unlikely. We have estimated the mean free path and the transition speed of phonons in nanofluid through density functional theory. We found a layer structure can form around the nanoparticles and the structure does not further induce fluid–fluid phase transition in the bulk fluid. By analyzing the compressibility of the fluid, we have also investigated the sound speed in the nanofluid. For the models of an asymmetric hard sphere mixture representing the single spherical nanoparticles and a mixture of rods and hard spheres representing aggregates, both suspended in the fluid, we found that for the very low volume fraction cases, the compressibility changes little. This shows that the speed of phonon transition does not change due to the addition of nanoparticles of either type. Our results indicate that, besides the enhancement due to the high thermal conductivity of nanoparticles themselves, fluid molecules make no evident contribution to the enhancement of thermal conductivity attributable to the presence of the nanoparticles at volume fractions less than 5%.     

Experimental investigation and development of new correlation for thermal conductivity and viscosity of BioGlycol/water based SiO2 nanofluids

Nanofluids are a new class of engineered heat transfer fluids which exhibit superior thermophysical properties and have potential applications in numerous important fields. In this study, nanofluids have been prepared by dispersing SiO₂ nanoparticles in different base fluids such as 20:80% and 30:70% by volume of BioGlycol (BG)/water (W) mixtures. Thermal conductivity and viscosity experiments have been conducted in temperatures between 30 °C and 80 °C and in volume concentrations between 0.5% and 2.0%. Results show that thermal conductivity of nanofluids increases with increase of volume concentrations and temperatures. Similarly, viscosity of nanofluid increases with increase of volume concentrations but decreases with increase of temperatures. The maximum thermal conductivity enhancement among all the nanofluids was observed for 20:80% BG/W nanofluid about 7.2% in the volume concentration of 2.0% at a temperature of 70 °C. Correspondingly among all the nanofluids maximum viscosity enhancement was observed for 30:70% BG/W nanofluid about 1.38-times in the volume concentration of 2.0% at a temperature of 70 °C. The classical models and semi-empirical correlations failed to predict the thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluids with effect of volume concentration and temperatures. Therefore, nonlinear correlations have been proposed with 3% maximum deviation for the estimation of thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluids.     

A combined model for the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids

This paper presents a combined static and dynamic mechanisms-based model for predicting the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids. The model includes the effects of particle size, nanolayer, Brownian motion, and particle surface chemistry and interaction potential which are the static and dynamic mechanisms responsible for the enhanced effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids. Present model shows reasonably good agreement with the experimental results of several types of nanofluids and gives better predictions compared to the existing models.     

Effect of aggregation and interfacial thermal resistance on thermal conductivity of nanocomposites and colloidal nanofluids

We analyzed the role of aggregation and interfacial thermal resistance on the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids and nanocomposites. We found that the thermal conductivity of nanofluids and nanocomposites can be significantly enhanced by the aggregation of nanoparticles into clusters. The value of the thermal conductivity enhancement is determined by the cluster morphology, filler conductivity and interfacial thermal resistance. We also compared thermal conductivity enhancement due to aggregation with that associated with high-aspect ratio fillers, including fibers and plates.     

Experimental comparative study of heat pipe performance using CuO and TiO2 nanofluids

In recent years, developing an energy efficient conventional heat pipe is more important because of the development of electronics and computer industries. To enhance the thermal performance of heat pipe, different nanofluids have been widely used. In this paper, an experimental investigation of heat transfer performance of heat pipe has been conducted using three different working fluids such as DI water, CuO nanofluid and TiO₂ nanofluid. The heat pipe used in this study is made up of copper layered with two layers of screen mesh wick for better capillary action. The Parameters considered in this study are heat input, angle of inclination and evaporator fill ratio. The concentration of nanoparticle used in this study is of 1.0 wt.%. From the experimental results, comparisons of thermal performance were made between the heat pipes using various working fluids. Among various fill ratio charged, the heat pipe shows good thermal performance when it is operated at 75% fill ratio for all working fluids. However, the heat pipe operated with CuO nanofluid showed higher results compared with TiO₂ nanofluid and DI water. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental investigation of nanofluids on sintered heat pipe thermal performance

Dilute dispersion of silver nano-particles in pure water was employed as the working fluid for conventional 1 mm wick-thickness sintered circular heat pipe. The nanofluid used in present study is an aqueous solution of 10 and 35 nm diameter silver nano-particles.The experiment was performed to measure the temperature distribution and compare the heat pipe temperature difference using nanofluid and DI-water. The tested nano-particle concentrations ranged from 1, 10 and 100 mg/l. The condenser section of the heat pipe was attached to a heat sink that was cooled by water supplied from a constant temperature bath maintained at 40 °C.At a same charge volume, the measured nanofluids filled heat pipe temperature distribution demonstrated that the temperature difference decreased 0.56–0.65 °C compared to DI-water at an input power of 30–50 W. In addition, the nanofluid as working medium in heat pipe can up to 70 W and is higher than pure water about 20 W.     

Unexpected sharp peak in thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes water-based nanofluids

We report here the thermal conductivity measurement of carbon nanotubes water-based nanofluids stabilized by sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate as a function of volume fraction and temperature. For the first time, we further show the existence of a sharp peak in thermal conductivity at very small volume fraction below theoretical percolation threshold which is temperature independent. This preliminary study evidences the potential of promising and useful nanofluid for practical applications in cooling and energy systems and heat exchangers, as viscosity penalty is obviously vanished at this concentration.