Ultrasonication effects on thermal and rheological properties of carbon nanotube suspensions

The preparation of nanofluids is very important to their thermophysical properties. Nanofluids with the same nanoparticles and base fluids can behave differently due to different nanofluid preparation methods. The agglomerate sizes in nanofluids can significantly impact the thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanofluids and lead to a different heat transfer performance. Ultrasonication is a common way to break up agglomerates and promote dispersion of nanoparticles into base fluids. However, research reports of sonication effects on nanofluid properties are limited in the open literature. In this work, sonication effects on thermal conductivity and viscosity of carbon nanotubes (0.5 wt%) in an ethylene glycol-based nanofluid are investigated. The corresponding effects on the agglomerate sizes and the carbon nanotube lengths are observed. It is found that with an increased sonication time/energy, the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids increases nonlinearly, with the maximum enhancement of 23% at sonication time of 1,355 min. However, the viscosity of nanofluids increases to the maximum at sonication time of 40 min, then decreases, finally approaching the viscosity of the pure base fluid at a sonication time of 1,355 min. It is also observed that the sonication process not only reduces the agglomerate sizes but also decreases the length of carbon nanotubes. Over the current experimental range, the reduction in agglomerate size is more significant than the reduction of the carbon nanotube length. Hence, the maximum thermal conductivity enhancement and minimum viscosity increase are obtained using a lengthy sonication, which may have implications on application.     

Thermophysical property evaluation of β-cyclodextrin modified ZrO2 nanofluids for microchannel heat exchange

Microchannel technology is an effective method to solve the heat transfer of microelectronics. Nanofluids are considered to have great application potential in microchannel heat exchangers. In this experiment, β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) was used to modify ZrO₂ nanoparticles. The morphology, functional group, and crystal structure of the nanoparticles before and after modification were studied. Ethylene glycol aqueous solution-based nanofluids were prepared using a two-step method. Its physical properties were studied. The modified nanofluid has better stability. The thermal conductivity of the nanofluid was measured and the mathematical model was analyzed. The results showed that the nanofluid with a concentration of 0.10 vol% was 37.82% higher than the base fluid at 60 °C. The results of the mathematical analysis indicate that the fabrication of nanofluids using β-cyclodextrin-modified ZrO₂ has great potential for application in heat transfer in microelectronic microchannels.     

多壁碳纳米管-水纳米流体导热机理及重力热管实验研究

在考虑了纳米层的情况下对原有的Xue导热模型进行改进,研究多壁碳纳米管-水纳米流体的热传导性能,推导出纳米流体导热公式并将纳米流体运用到碳钢重力热管中,在不同质量分数下对单管传热进行实验研究。结果表明纳米层的存在提高了有效热导率;在相同条件下质量分数2%的多壁碳纳米管-水纳米流体重力热管传热性能最好,传热系数比普通水重力热管最大提高了40%。     

Nanofluids Research: Key Issues

Nanofluids are a new class of fluids engineered by dispersing nanometer-size structures (particles, fibers, tubes, droplets) in base fluids. The very essence of nanofluids research and development is to enhance fluid macroscopic and megascale properties such as thermal conductivity through manipulating microscopic physics (structures, properties and activities). Therefore, the success of nanofluid technology depends very much on how well we can address issues like effective means of microscale manipulation, interplays among physics at different scales and optimization of microscale physics for the optimal megascale properties. In this work, we take heat-conduction nanofluids as examples to review methodologies available to effectively tackle these key but difficult problems and identify the future research needs as well. The reviewed techniques include nanofluids synthesis through liquid-phase chemical reactions in continuous-flow microfluidic microreactors, scaling-up by the volume averaging and constructal design with the constructal theory. The identified areas of future research contain microfluidic nanofluids, thermal waves and constructal nanofluids.     

二氧化铈/水基纳米流体核沸腾传热特性

对CeO₂纳米流体进行了池沸腾传热特性研究,考察了CeO₂/水基纳米流体的热导率,静态接触角以及沸腾后表面沉积情况对沸腾传热的影响。结果表明,CeO₂纳米流体可提高沸腾传热系数,且纳米流体最佳质量分数为0.05％,其沸腾传热系数较去离子水提高36%。热导率以及接触角随纳米流体质量分数的增加而增加,在本实验范围内,热导率最大增加1%;而纳米流体接触角从50.5°增加到92.9°;表面沉积随纳米流体的质量分数增加越来越明显,去离子水在沉积表面的接触角发生较大变化（51.4°~134.4°）。纳米流体的热导率影响可忽略不计;而接触角和沸腾表面颗粒沉积对纳米流体的强化传热作用影响较大。     

Enhancement of thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol based silver nanofluids

Nanofluid is a kind of new engineering material consisting of solid particles with size typically of 1-100 nm suspended in base fluids. Nanofluids offer excellent scope of enhancing thermal conductivity of common heat transfer fluids. In the present study, nanofluids are synthesized using silver nitrate (precursor), ethylene glycol (reducing agent), and poly(acrylamide-co-acrylicacid) (dispersion stabilizer). The different concentrations of silver nanofluid (1000-10,000 ppm) were synthesized. The silver particles present in colloidal phase have been characterized by EDX, XRD, UV-visible spectroscopy, Zeta potential and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The stability as well as thermal conductivity of these nanofluids was determined with a transient hot-wire apparatus, as a lapse of time after preparation. Typically, 10,000 ppm silver nanofluid exhibited rapid increase in the particle size with the passage of time. Thermal conductivity of silver nanofluids increased to 10, 16, and 18% as the amount of silver particles in nanofluid were 1000, 5000, and 10,000 ppm, respectively. After 30 days of preparation, the thermal conductivity of 1000 and 5000 ppm silver nanofluids decreased slightly from 10% and 15% to 9% and 14%, respectively. In addition, the thermal conductivity of 10,000 ppm nanofluid was decreased from 18% to 14% after 30 days. It is very interesting to report that the silver particles were aggregated in early stage of preparation (up to 15 days), which leads to the increase in the size of silver particles. However, no significant change was observed after 15 days which indicates the stability of silver nanofluids.     

Convective heat transfer of alumina nanofluids in laminar flows through a pipe at the thermal entrance regime

The convective heat transfer characteristics of aqueous alumina nanofluids were investigated experimentally under forced laminar tube flows. The particles had different shapes of cylinders, bricks and blades, and particle loading was between 0?C5 volume%. The nanofluids were characterized rheologically, and the heat transfer system was validated by using water without particles. In calculating Nusselt and Peclet numbers to assess heat transfer enhancement of nanofluids, physical properties of water were used so as not to exaggerate the amount of heat transfer. It was found that heat transfer coefficients of nanofluids are almost the same or a little smaller than that of water. The heat transfer coefficient can be reduced by the lowering the thermal conductivity of the nanofluid under shearing conditions and particle depletion by the cluster migration from the wall to the tube center. The reduction in thermophysical properties also contributes to the reduction in heat transfer coefficient. It has been concluded that nanofluids from metal particles with appropriate stabilizing agents can satisfy the requirements to be a practically usable nanofluid.     

Enhanced convective heat transfer using graphene dispersed nanofluids

Nanofluids are having wide area of application in electronic and cooling industry. In the present work, hydrogen exfoliated graphene (HEG) dispersed deionized (DI) water, and ethylene glycol (EG) based nanofluids were developed. Further, thermal conductivity and heat transfer properties of these nanofluids were systematically investigated. HEG was synthesized by exfoliating graphite oxide in H2 atmosphere at 200°C. The nanofluids were prepared by dispersing functionalized HEG (f-HEG) in DI water and EG without the use of any surfactant. HEG and f-HEG were characterized by powder X-ray diffractometry, electron microscopy, Raman and FTIR spectroscopy. Thermal and electrical conductivities of f-HEG dispersed DI water and EG based nanofluids were measured for different volume fractions and at different temperatures. A 0.05% volume fraction of f-HEG dispersed DI water based nanofluid shows an enhancement in thermal conductivity of about 16% at 25°C and 75% at 50°C. The enhancement in Nusselts number for these nanofluids is more than that of thermal conductivity.     

Preparation and characterization of carbon nanofluid by a plasma arc nanoparticles synthesis system

Heat dissipation from electrical appliances is a significant issue with contemporary electrical devices. One factor in the improvement of heat dissipation is the heat transfer performance of the working fluid. In this study, we used plasma arc technology to produce a nanofluid of carbon nanoparticles dispersed in distilled water. In a one-step synthesis, carbon was simultaneously heated and vaporized in the chamber, the carbon vapor and particles were then carried to a collector, where cooling furnished the desired carbon/water nanofluid. The particle size and shape were determined using the light-scattering size analyzer, SEM, and TEM. Crystal morphology was examined by XRD. Finally, the characterization include thermal conductivity, viscosity, density and electric conductivity were evaluated by suitable instruments under different temperatures. The thermal conductivity of carbon/water nanofluid increased by about 25% at 50°C compared to distilled water. The experimental results demonstrated excellent thermal conductivity and feasibility for manufacturing of carbon/water nanofluids.     

Effect of alumina nanoparticles in the fluid on heat transfer in double-pipe heat exchanger system

This study was performed to investigate the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids made of several alumina nanoparticles and transformer oil which flow through a double pipe heat exchanger system in the laminar flow regime. The nanofluids exhibited a considerable increase of heat transfer coefficients. Although the thermal conductivity of alumina is not high, it is much higher than that of the base fluids. The nanofluids tested displayed good thermal properties. One of the possible reasons for the enhancement on heat transfer of nanofluids can be explained by the high concentration of nanoparticles in the thermal boundary layer at the wall side through the migration of nanoparticles. To understand the enhancement of heat transfer of nanofluid, an experimental correlation was proposed for an alumina-transformer oil nanofluid system.     

Heat transfer and flow behaviour of aqueous suspensions of titanate nanotubes (nanofluids)

Titanate nanotubes of an aspect ratio of ~ 10 are synthesized, characterised and dispersed in water to form stable nanofluids containing 0.5, 1.0 and 2.5 wt.% of the nanotubes. Experiments are then carried out to investigate the effective thermal conductivity, rheological behaviour and forced convective heat transfer of the nanofluids. The results show a small thermal conductivity enhancement of ~ 3% at 25 °C and ~ 5% at 40 °C for the 2.5 wt.% nanofluid. The nanofluids are found to be non-Newtonian with obvious shear thinning behaviour with the shear viscosity decreasing with increasing shear rate at low shear rates. The shear viscosity approaches constant at a shear rate higher than ~ 100-1000 s^− 1 depending nanoparticle concentration. The high shear viscosity is found to be much higher than that predicted by the conventional viscosity models for dilute suspensions. Despite the small thermal conduction enhancement, an excellent enhancement is observed on the convective heat transfer coefficient, which is much higher than that of the thermal conductivity enhancement. In comparison with nanofluids containing spherical titania nanoparticles under similar conditions, the enhancement of both thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer coefficient of the titanate nanotube nanofluids is considerably higher indicating the important role of particle shape in the heat transfer enhancement. Possible mechanisms are also proposed for the observed enhancement of the convective heat transfer coefficient.     

氧化铝有机纳米流体的流动传热基础特性

以氧化铝为纳米粒子、丙二醇和水为基础液体制备了氧化铝有机纳米流体,分别测量了它的沸点、热导率、比热容和黏度。以1％～5％（体积分数）的氧化铝纳米流体作为冷介质,测试了在车用机油冷却器中的传热系数和流动阻力。试验结果表明,纳米粒子能够显著强化基础液体在机油冷却器中的换热能力,粒子体积分数和流体温度是影响纳米流体热物性的重要因素。氧化铝纳米流体的沸点高于120℃,比热容随体积分数增加而降低,热导率、黏度和在机油冷却器中的传热系数均随粒子体积分数的增加而提高。在试验Ⅱ中,5％（体积分数）纳米流体的平均传热系数比基础液体提高了124.56％,而流动阻力增幅较小。     

Effect of particle size on the thermal conductivity of nanofluids containing metallic nanoparticles

A one-parameter model is presented for the thermal conductivity of nanofluids containing dispersed metallic nanoparticles. The model takes into account the decrease in thermal conductivity of metal nanoparticles with decreasing size. Although literature data could be correlated well using the model, the effect of the size of the particles on the effective thermal conductivity of the nanofluid could not be elucidated from these data. Therefore, new thermal conductivity measurements are reported for six nanofluids containing silver nanoparticles of different sizes and volume fractions. The results provide strong evidence that the decrease in the thermal conductivity of the solid with particle size must be considered when developing models for the thermal conductivity of nanofluids.     

Preparation and properties of copper-oil-based nanofluids

In this study, the lipophilic Cu nanoparticles were synthesized by surface modification method to improve their dispersion stability in hydrophobic organic media. The oil-based nanofluids were prepared with the lipophilic Cu nanoparticles. The transport properties, viscosity, and thermal conductivity of the nanofluids have been measured. The viscosities and thermal conductivities of the nanofluids with the surface-modified nanoparticles have higher values than the base fluids do. The composition has more significant effects on the thermal conductivity than on the viscosity. It is valuable to prepare an appropriate oil-based nanofluid for enhancing the heat-transfer capacity of a hydrophobic system. The effects of adding Cu nanoparticles on the thermal oxidation stability of the fluids were investigated by measuring the hydroperoxide concentration in the Cu/kerosene nanofluids. The hydroperoxide concentrations are observed to be clearly lower in the Cu nanofluids than in their base fluids. Appropriate amounts of metal nanoparticles added in a hydrocarbon fuel can enhance the thermal oxidation stability.     

Natural convection heat transfer of nanofluids along a vertical plate embedded in porous medium

The unsteady natural convection heat transfer of nanofluid along a vertical plate embedded in porous medium is investigated. The Darcy-Forchheimer model is used to formulate the problem. Thermal conductivity and viscosity models based on a wide range of experimental data of nanofluids and incorporating the velocity-slip effect of the nanoparticle with respect to the base fluid, i.e., Brownian diffusion is used. The effective thermal conductivity of nanofluid in porous media is calculated using copper powder as porous media. The nonlinear governing equations are solved using an unconditionally stable implicit finite difference scheme. In this study, six different types of nanofluids have been compared with respect to the heat transfer enhancement, and the effects of particle concentration, particle size, temperature of the plate, and porosity of the medium on the heat transfer enhancement and skin friction coefficient have been studied in detail. It is found that heat transfer rate increases with the increase in particle concentration up to an optimal level, but on the further increase in particle concentration, the heat transfer rate decreases. For a particular value of particle concentration, small-sized particles enhance the heat transfer rates. On the other hand, skin friction coefficients always increase with the increase in particle concentration and decrease in nanoparticle size.     

Experimental investigation of the thermal transport properties of a carbon nanohybrid dispersed nanofluid

A hybrid nanostructure consisting of 1D carbon nanotubes and 2D graphene was successfully synthesized. Nanofluids were made by dispersing the hybrid nanostructure in deionized (DI) water and ethylene glycol (EG) separately, without any surfactant. Later the thermal conductivity and heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids were experimentally measured. Meanwhile, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) were prepared by catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD), and hydrogen exfoliated graphene (HEG) was synthesized by exfoliating graphite oxide in a hydrogen atmosphere. The hybrid nanostructure (f-MWNT+f-HEG) of functionalized MWNT (f-MWNT) and functionalized HEG (f-HEG) was prepared by a post mixing technique, and the sample was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Thermal conductivity of the nanofluids was measured for different volume fractions of f-MWNT+f-HEG at different temperatures. The hybrid nanostructure dispersed in the DI water based nanofluid shows a thermal conductivity enhancement of 20% for a volume fraction of 0.05%. Similarly, for a Reynolds number of 15,500, the enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient is about 289% for a 0.01% volume fraction of f-MWNT+f-HEG.     

Al2O3-based nanofluids: a review

Ultrahigh performance cooling is one of the important needs of many industries. However, low thermal conductivity is a primary limitation in developing energy-efficient heat transfer fluids that are required for cooling purposes. Nanofluids are engineered by suspending nanoparticles with average sizes below 100 nm in heat transfer fluids such as water, oil, diesel, ethylene glycol, etc. Innovative heat transfer fluids are produced by suspending metallic or nonmetallic nanometer-sized solid particles. Experiments have shown that nanofluids have substantial higher thermal conductivities compared to the base fluids. These suspended nanoparticles can change the transport and thermal properties of the base fluid. As can be seen from the literature, extensive research has been carried out in alumina-water and CuO-water systems besides few reports in Cu-water-, TiO₂-, zirconia-, diamond-, SiC-, Fe₃O₄-, Ag-, Au-, and CNT-based systems. The aim of this review is to summarize recent developments in research on the stability of nanofluids, enhancement of thermal conductivities, viscosity, and heat transfer characteristics of alumina (Al₂O₃)-based nanofluids. The Al₂O₃ nanoparticles varied in the range of 13 to 302 nm to prepare nanofluids, and the observed enhancement in the thermal conductivity is 2% to 36%.     

Preparation and thermal conductivity of CuO nanofluid via a wet chemical method

In this article, a wet chemical method was developed to prepare stable CuO nanofluids. The influences of synthesis parameters, such as kinds and amounts of copper salts, reaction time, were studied. The thermal conductivities of CuO nanofluids were also investigated. The results showed that different copper salts resulted in different particle morphology. The concentration of copper acetate and reaction time affected the size and shape of clusters of primary nanoparticles. Nanofluids with different microstructures could be obtained by changing the synthesis parameters. The thermal conductivities of CuO nanofluids increased with the increase of particle loading.     

基于反扰动非平衡分子动力学的纳米流体导热增强机理研究

相较于水、乙二醇等常规流体,纳米流体出色的传热效果使其成为近十年来研究的热点之一。利用一种反扰动非平衡分子动力学方法对纳米流体的导热增强机理进行了模拟研究。在基液Ar 中加入 Cu 纳米颗粒后, 纳米流体的热通量和热导率均发生了不同程度的改变,纳米颗粒体积分数的变化,在一定程度上改变了纳米流体内部的能量传递过程。进一步分析了纳米流体热导率强化的微观作用机理,发现纳米颗粒的加入,使得纳米流体的微观结构具有了类似晶体的微观结构特性,在颗粒尺寸较小的情况下,流体内部受温度梯度作用效应明显。     

Numerical evaluation of laminar heat transfer enhancement in nanofluid flow in coiled square tubes

Convective heat transfer can be enhanced by changing flow geometry and/or by enhancing thermal conductivity of the fluid. This study proposes simultaneous passive heat transfer enhancement by combining the geometry effect utilizing nanofluids inflow in coils. The two nanofluid suspensions examined in this study are: water-Al2O3 and water-CuO. The flow behavior and heat transfer performance of these nanofluid suspensions in various configurations of coiled square tubes, e.g., conical spiral, in-plane spiral, and helical spiral, are investigated and compared with those for water flowing in a straight tube. Laminar flow of a Newtonian nanofluid in coils made of square cross section tubes is simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD)approach, where the nanofluid properties are treated as functions of particle volumetric concentration and temperature. The results indicate that addition of small amounts of nanoparticles up to 1% improves significantly the heat transfer performance; however, further addition tends to deteriorate heat transfer performance.