Experimental studies and analytical analysis of thermophysical properties of Ethylene glycol – water based nanofluids dispersed with multi walled carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Abstract The current study examines the thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity of ethylene glycol–water solutions comprising oxidised multiwalled carbon nanotubes. The Mouromtseff number (Mo) is used to estimate the heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids based on their physico-thermal properties. As a base fluid, ethylene glycol - water mixtures are taken in all volume proportions, from 100% to zero percent, for use in both automotive and solar thermal applications. Oxidized MWCNTs in weight fractions of 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 are used to produce the best stability in Ethylene glycol-Water mixtures. The stability of nanofluids was monitored for two months using UV-Vis spectroscopy. Adding MWCNTs to the base fluids results in a significant increase in thermal conductivity between 15% and 24%. In order to derive correlations between thermal conductivity and dynamic viscosity, a total of 1500 data points were collected for all possible combinations of temperature, weight fraction, and ethylene glycol %. from analysis using Mouromtseff number (Mo), it was found that under turbulent flow, low concentration dilute nanofluids were shown to be the most effective heat transfer medium.