A MODEL FOR PREDICTING THE EFFECTIVE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF NANOPARTICLE-FLUID SUSPENSIONS

Abstract

The uniformity and homogeneously dispersed nanoparticles in base fluids contribute to enhanced thermal conductivity of the mixture. By considering the uniformity and geometrical structures (e.g., body-centered cubic) of homogeneously dispersed nanoparticles in base fluids, a model for determining the effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of such nanoparticle-fluid suspensions, commonly known as nanofluids is proposed in this study. The theoretical results of the effective thermal conductivities of TiO 2/Deionized (DI) water and Al 2 O 3/DI water-based nanofluids are presented, and they are found to be in good agreement with our experimental results and also with those reported in the literature. The new model presented in this study shows a better prediction of the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids compared to other classical models attributed to Maxwell, Hamilton–Crosser, and Bruggeman.