Anomalously increased effective thermal conductivities of ethylene glycol-based nanofluids containing copper nanoparticles (original) (raw)

Effects of Particle Surface Charge, Species, Concentration, and Dispersion Method on the Thermal Conductivity of Nanofluids

Advances in Mechanical Engineering, 2010

The purpose of this experimental study is to evaluate the effects of particle species, surface charge, concentration, preparation technique, and base fluid on thermal transport capability of nanoparticle suspensions (nanofluids). The surface charge was varied by changing the pH value of the fluids. The alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) and copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles were dispersed in deionized (DI) water and ethylene glycol (EG), respectively. The nanofluids were prepared using both bath-type and probe sonicator under different power inputs. The experimental results were compared with the available experimental data as well as the predicted values obtained from Maxwell effective medium theory. It was found that ethylene glycol is more suitable for nanofluids applications than DI water in terms of thermal conductivity improvement and stability of nanofluids. Surface charge can effectively improve the dispersion of nanoparticles by reducing the (aggregated) particle size in base fluids. A nanofluid with high surface charge (low pH) has a higher thermal conductivity for a similar particle concentration. The sonication also has a significant impact on thermal conductivity enhancement. All these results suggest that the key to the improvement of thermal conductivity of nanofluids is a uniform and stable dispersion of nanoscale particles in a fluid.

Nanofluids for thermal transport

Materials Today, 2005

Cooling is one of the most important technical challenges facing many diverse industries, including microelectronics, transportation, solid-state lighting, and manufacturing. Technological developments such as microelectronic devices with smaller (sub-100 nm) features and faster (multi-gigahertz) operating speeds, higher-power engines, and brighter optical devices are driving increased thermal loads, requiring advances in cooling. The conventional method for increasing heat dissipation is to increase the area available for exchanging heat with a heat transfer fluid. However, this approach requires an undesirable increase in the thermal management system's size. There is therefore an urgent need for new and innovative coolants with improved performance. The novel concept of 'nanofluids' -heat transfer fluids containing suspensions of nanoparticles -has been proposed as a means of meeting these challenges 1 .

Investigating thermo-physical properties and thermal performance of Al 2 O 3 and CuO nanoparticles in Water and Ethylene Glycol based fluids

The thermophysical properties and thermal performance of water-and ethylene-glycol-based nanofluids containing Al 2 O 3 and CuO nanoparticles were examined. Nanofluids were prepared at four concentrations (1-4 vol%) using an electric mixer and magnetic stirrer, and the thermophysical properties were measured. Surfactants were used to improve stability. The transient hot-wire method (KD2-Pro device), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), and Ostwald viscometer (ASTM D445-06) were used to measure the resulting thermal conductivity coefficient, nanoparticle diameter, and nanofluid viscosity, respectively. The experiments were carried out in the 20 to 50 °C temperature range. Adding 1 wt% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) to the CuOwater and the same amount of sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) to the Al 2 O 3-water nanofluid were found to stabilize them for 20 and 22 days, respectively. Increasing the nanoparticle volume fraction, raising the temperature, and reducing nanoparticle diameter were found to increase the thermal conductivity coefficient. The density also increases with the nanoparticle volume fraction in the base fluid increasing. Moreover, at the same volume fraction, the CuO-water nanofluid had a higher density than Al 2 O 3-water. Better base fluid thermal properties amplify the effect on the nanofluid's thermal conductivity coefficient. The actual thermal conductivity coefficient was determined by comparing model predictions of the coefficient.

Effect of nanomaterial properties on thermal conductivity of heat transfer fluids and nanomaterial suspension

Energy has been rated as the single most important issue facing humanity in the current as well as next 50 years. Securing clean energy has become the top priority of most developed countries. Considering the rapid increase in energy demand worldwide, intensifying the heat transfer process and reducing energy loss due to ineffective use have become an increasingly important task. Fundamentally, energy conversion and transportation occur at atomic or molecular levels, Nanoscience and nanotechnology are expected to play a significant role in revitalizing the traditional energy industries and stimulating the emerging renewable energy industries. Nanofluid is a modern engineering heat transfer fluid with superior potential for enhancing the heat transfer performance of conventional fluids such as water, ethylene glycol and oils. It is consisting of solid nanoparticles with sizes typically of 1-100 nm suspended in base fluids. Many attempts have been made to investigate its important thermal properties, i.e. thermal conductivity; however, no definitive agreements and idea have emerged about this property. This article reports the effect of different nanomaterial on the thermal conductivity enhancement of nanofluids experimentally. TiO 2 , Fe 3 O 4 and Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles dispersed in water and ethylene glycol with volume concentration of 1-7.5 vol. % is used in the present study. A transient hot-wire apparatus (KD2 pro) is used for measuring the thermal conductivity of nanofluids. The results show that all the heat transfer fluids show an increase in thermal conductivity with the addition of nanoparticles in it. The measured thermal conductivity of nanofluids increased as the particle concentrations increased and are higher than the values of the base liquids. This confirms the effect of volume concentration of nanoparticles on the thermal conductivity enhancement.

New Measurements of the Apparent Thermal Conductivity of Nanofluids and Investigation of Their Heat Transfer Capabilities

Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data

The aim of this paper is to investigate in depth whether adding nanoparticles or nanotubes to a fluid enhances its heat transfer capabilities. For this reason, the thermal conductivities and viscosities of a selection of nanofluids were thoroughly examined. The systems studied were (a) ethylene glycol with added CuO, TiO 2 , or Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles and (b) water with TiO 2 or Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles or multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). All of the measurements were conducted at 298.15 K. In a very recent paper, it was shown that instruments employing the transient hot-wire technique can produce excellent measurements when a finite element method (FEM) is employed to describe the instrument for the geometry of the hot wire. Furthermore, it was shown that an approximate analytic solution can be employed with equal success over the time range from 0.1 to 1 s, provided that four specific criteria are satisfied. Subsequently a transient hot-wire instrument was designed, constructed, and employed for the measurement of the thermal conductivities of nanofluids with an uncertainty of about 2%. A second, validated technique, namely, a hot-disk instrument, was also employed to conduct measurements on some of the systems to provide mutual support for the results of the thermal conductivity measurements. To investigate the effect of any enhancement of the thermal conductivity of the fluids on their application in practical heat transfer, the viscosities of typical concentrations of several of the nanofluids were also measured. A parallel-plate rotational rheometer, able to measure the viscosities of Newtonian and non-Newtonian liquids with an uncertainty of better than 5%, was employed for these measurements because most of the nanofluids considered showed behavior comparable to a Bingham plastic. All of these measurements have allowed an investigation of the change in the heat transfer capability of the base fluid when nanoparticles or MWCNTs are added to it for a typical heat exchanger. It is shown that in general the combined changes in physical properties that accompany suspension of nanoparticles in fluids mean that the heat transfer benefits are all rather modest, even when they are achieved.

Study of the Effect of Volume Fraction Concentration and Particle Materials on Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Diffusivity of Nanofluids

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 2011

Nanofluids, a mixture of nanoparticles and fluids, have exceptional potential to improve their effective thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity, aluminum and aluminum oxide nanofluids with five different volume fractions of nanoparticle suspensions in different base fluids, i.e., distilled water, ethylene glycol (EG), and ethanol were prepared by mixing nanopowder and base fluids. Sonication with high-powered pulses was used to ensure the dispersion of nanoparticles in good uniformity in the base fluids. The hot wire-laser beam displacement technique was used to measure thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of the prepared nanofluids. The effects of the volume fraction concentration and particle materials on the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of nanofluids were determined. The results showed that the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity increased linearly with increasing volume fraction concentration of nanoparticles in the respective base fluids. In addition, the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity increased faster in the Al 2 O 3 nanofluids than in all the three base fluids.

Particle size effects in the thermal conductivity enhancement of copper-based nanofluids

Nanoscale Research Letters, 2011

We present an analysis of the dispersion characteristics and thermal conductivity performance of copper-based nanofluids. The copper nanoparticles were prepared using a chemical reduction methodology in the presence of a stabilizing surfactant, oleic acid or cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Nanofluids were prepared using water as the base fluid with copper nanoparticle concentrations of 0.55 and 1.0 vol.%. A dispersing agent, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS), and subsequent ultrasonication was used to ensure homogenous dispersion of the copper nanopowders in water. Particle size distribution of the copper nanoparticles in the base fluid was determined by dynamic light scattering. We found that the 0.55 vol.% Cu nanofluids exhibited excellent dispersion in the presence of SDBS. In addition, a dynamic thermal conductivity setup was developed and used to measure the thermal conductivity performance of the nanofluids. The 0.55 vol.% Cu nanofluids exhibited a thermal conductivity enhancement of approximately 22%. In the case of the nanofluids prepared from the powders synthesized in the presence of CTAB, the enhancement was approximately 48% over the base fluid for the 1.0 vol.% Cu nanofluids, which is higher than the enhancement values found in the literature. These results can be directly related to the particle/agglomerate size of the copper nanoparticles in water, as determined from dynamic light scattering.

Influence of CuO nanoparticles in enhancing the thermal conductivity of water and monoethylene glycol based nanofluids

International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 2012

In this paper the effect of CuO nanoparticles on the thermal conductivity of base fluids like mono ethylene glycol and water was studied. Both the base fluids showed enhancement in effective thermal conductivity. This enhancement was investigated with regard to various factors; concentration of nanoparticles, types of base fluids, sonication time and settlement time. For both the base fluids, an improvement in thermal conductivity was found as concentration of nanoparticles increased due to interaction between particles. It was also found that as the sonication time was increased, there was furthermore an improvement in the thermal conductivity of the base fluids. Effect of base fluids is the complex idea to understand. Lower base fluid's viscosities are supposed to contribute grater enchantment, but another factor of fluid nanoparticles surface interaction also more important. The experimentally measured thermal conductivities of base fluid's nanoparticles suspension were compared to a variety of models (Maxwell, Hamilton-Crosser and Bruggeman Model). It is observed that none of the mentioned models were found to predict accurately the thermal conductivities of nanofluids.

A benchmark study on the thermal conductivity of nanofluids

Journal of Applied Physics, 2009

This article reports on the International Nanofluid Property Benchmark Exercise, or INPBE, in which the thermal conductivity of identical samples of colloidally stable dispersions of nanoparticles or "nanofluids," was measured by over 30 organizations worldwide, using a variety of experimental approaches, including the transient hot wire method, steady-state methods, and optical methods. The nanofluids tested in the exercise were comprised of aqueous and nonaqueous basefluids, metal and metal oxide particles, near-spherical and elongated particles, at low and high particle concentrations. The data analysis reveals that the data from most organizations lie within a relatively narrow band ͑Ϯ10% or less͒ about the sample average with only few outliers. The thermal conductivity of the nanofluids was found to increase with particle concentration and aspect ratio, as expected from classical theory. There are ͑small͒ systematic differences in the absolute values of the nanofluid thermal conductivity among the various experimental approaches; however, such differences tend to disappear when the data are normalized to the measured thermal conductivity of the basefluid. The effective medium theory developed for dispersed particles by Maxwell in 1881 and recently generalized by Nan et al. ͓J. Appl. Phys. 81, 6692 ͑1997͔͒, was found to be in good agreement with the experimental data, suggesting that no anomalous enhancement of thermal conductivity was achieved in the nanofluids tested in this exercise.

Effect of clustering on the thermal conductivity of nanofluids

Materials Chemistry and Physics, 2008

We synthesis CuO nanoparticles of average diameter 8 nm by a simple precipitation technique and study the thermal properties of the suspensions. The thermal conductivity enhancement observed in water and ethylene glycol based nanofluids with 1 vol.% CuO nanoparticles loading are 31.6 and 54%, respectively. The large enhancement in thermal conductivity is attributed to the finer particle size and monodispersity of nanoparticles. It has been found that the thermal conductivity of the nanofluid increases nonlinearly with the volume fraction of nanoparticles. The time-dependent thermal conductivity in water based CuO nanofluid shows that the thermal conductivity decreases with elapsed time due to clustering of nanoparticles with time, as confirmed microscopically. The experimental results show that the nanoparticles size, polydispersity, cluster size and the volume fraction of particles have a significant influence on thermal conductivity.