Influence of CuO nanoparticles in enhancing the thermal conductivity of water and monoethylene glycol based nanofluids

In this paper the effect of CuO nanoparticles on the thermal conductivity of base fluids like mono ethylene glycol and water was studied. Both the base fluids showed enhancement in effective thermal conductivity. This enhancement was investigated with regard to various factors; concentration of nanoparticles, types of base fluids, sonication time and settlement time. For both the base fluids, an improvement in thermal conductivity was found as concentration of nanoparticles increased due to interaction between particles. It was also found that as the sonication time was increased, there was furthermore an improvement in the thermal conductivity of the base fluids. Effect of base fluids is the complex idea to understand. Lower base fluid's viscosities are supposed to contribute grater enchantment, but another factor of fluid nanoparticles surface interaction also more important. The experimentally measured thermal conductivities of base fluid's nanoparticles suspension were compared to a variety of models (Maxwell, Hamilton-Crosser and Bruggeman Model). It is observed that none of the mentioned models were found to predict accurately the thermal conductivities of nanofluids. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.