Thermal Conductivity of Nanoparticle Suspensions (Nanofluids)

Abstract

This paper presents theoretical and experimental investigations on the enhanced thermal conductivity of nanofluids. The thermal conductivity of nanofluids is found to significantly increase with particle volume fraction. Taking into account the effects of the interfacial layer and particle size, two models (one for spherical nanoparticles and the other for cylindrical nanoparticles in base fluids) are developed to predict the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids. The proposed models show good agreement with the experimental results and give better predictions of the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids compared to existing models in the literature.