Thermophysical Properties of Carbide and Nitride Nanofluids

Abstract

The total performance of a heat exchanger system is significantly influenced by the thermophysical (TP) characteristics of the used thermal fluids and especially for thermal nanofluids due to their complex design. In this study, three key TP characteristics for instance the density, specific heat capacity and the dynamic viscosity of a carbide and nitride thermal nanofluids, namely Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Boron Nitride (BN) based thermal nanofluids are experimentally and theoretically investigated. These thermal nanofluids are produced for four very low particle concentrations from 0.01 to 0.04 vol.% dispersed into ethylene glycol/water (EG/DW) mixture. The results indicate that these thermal nanofluids have higher density and dynamic viscosity in comparison with their conventional base fluid (EG/DW) and they increase with increasing concentration of the nanoparticles. The maximum increase in dynamic viscosity of 4.1% at 0.04 vol.% was found. On the other hand, the specific heat capacity of these thermal nanofluids insignificantly decreased with the increasing of nanoparticles concentration in comparison with the conventional base fluid.