Thermal conductivity and rheology behavior of aqueous nanofluids containing alumina and carbon nanotubes

Abstract

In this study, thermal conductivity and rheology behavior of aqueous alumina and multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanofluids were measured and compared with several analytical models. Both thermal conductivity and viscosity of the two nanofluids increase with increasing volume fraction. The experimental thermal conductivity data for the two nanofluids are located near the lower Hashin-Shtrikman bound and far away from the upper Hashin-Shtrikman bound. Therefore there is still enough room for thermal conductivity enhancement. Further conductivity enhancement of the nanofluids can be achieved by manipulating particle or agglomeration distribution and morphology. The structure-property relationship was checked for the nanofluids. Possible agglomeration size and interfacial thermal resistance were obtained and partially validated. Based on the Chen et al. model, a revised model was developed by incorporating the effects of interfacial thermal resistance into the Hamilton-Crosser model. The revised model can accurately reproduce the experimental data based on the agglomeration size extracted from the rheology analysis. In addition, thermal conductivity change of the alumina/water nanofluid with elapsed time was also investigated. The average thermal conductivity decreases with elapsed time. Besides, thermal conductivity measurements were conducted for nanofluid mixtures of alumina/water and MWCNT/water nanofluids.