Investigation of thermal properties of alumina based nanofluids

Abstract:
Ethylene glycol based nanofluids of alumina were investigated concerning its later application
in heat transfer application. They were characterized at different volume fraction (0%, 0,05%,
0,1%, 0,2%, 0,5%). The evolution of thermal conductivity, the specific heat and thermal
diffusivity were carried out at room temperature according to different volume fraction. The
dielectric properties of the obtained nanofluids were performed in the frequency range 40 Hz
and 100 khz using a specially designed cell with two stainless steel cylindrical electrodes. The
dielectric properties of ALO based nanofluids enhanced with the volume fraction and stay
higher than that of pure EG.

Introduction:

During the last decade, ultrahigh performance cooling contribute to the development of
energy-efficient heat transfer fluids which are needed in many industries and commercial
application. Conventional fluids including water, engine oil and ethylene glycol are used as
heat transfer nevertheless they are poor heat transfer fluids. Whereas several technique are
exploited to enhance the heat transfer.
Fluids suspended by nanometer sized solid particles called “nanofluids” is the recent
technique for the heat transfer enhancement. [1] [2][3][4][5]. They can be synthesized by
various methods : a single step method[6] or a two step method [7]. The sigle step method
consist on the simultaneous synthesis of nanoparticles and nanofluids, and the two step
method includes the synthesis of nanoparticles in the first step followed by their dispersion in
a suitable base fluid in the second step.
The electrical properties of nanofluids have been experimentally and theoretically inspected.
Numerous studies have demonstrated their highly conducting properties compared to their
base fluids [8][9][10].
Nanofluids containing metal oxides have shown special potentials in heat transfer
applications, due to their remarkable properties such as high thermal conductivity, electrical
insulation, excellent compatibility with base fluid and high cost performance ratio [11].
Maria et al. studied the thermal conductivity ofehylene glycol based Al2O3 nanofluids and
they revealed a considerable enhancement on thermal on thermal conductivity[12]. Another
work reported 57% enhancement on thermal conductivity using TiO2/ engine oil nanofluids
when 3wt% of TiO2 was added[13]. Yu et al investigated the thermal conductivity of
ethylene glycol based ZnO nanofluids, they reported that the thermal conductivity of ZnO-
EG nanofluids relied on particle concentration, and it increases nonlinearly with the volume
fraction of the nanoparticle[14]. Among different metal oxide thermal additivies, alumine
oxide materials have aroused intense interest.
In this work an attempt is made to determine the best volume fraction of AlO nanoparticles to
achieve the best thermal properties of ethylene glycol AlO based fluids.

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