Latest developments on the viscosity of nanofluids

The past decade has seen the rapid development of nanofluids science in many aspects. Number of research is conducted that is mostly focused on the thermal conductivity of these fluids. However, nanofluid viscosity also deserves the same attention as thermal conductivity. In this paper, different characteristics of viscosity of nanofluids including nanofluid preparation methods, temperature, particle size and shape, and volume fraction effects are thoroughly compiled and reviewed. Furthermore, a precise review on theoretical models/correlations of conventional models related to nanofluid viscosity is presented. The existing experimental results about the nanofluids viscosity show clearly that viscosity augmented accordingly with an increase of volume concentration and decreased with the temperature rise. However, there are some contradictory results on the effects of temperature on viscosity. Moreover, it is shown that particle size has some noteworthy effects over viscosity of nanofluids. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.