Measurement of the thermal conductivity of a water-based single-wall carbon nanotube colloidal suspension with a modified 3-ω method

A modified 3-omega method applied to a suspended platinum microwire was employed to measure the thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer coefficient of a water-based single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) solution (metallic single-wall nanotubes with 1.33 nm diameter and 1.14 wt% concentration), and an expression for calculating the convective heat transfer coefficient in such a free convective fluid was introduced. The measurement technique was validated for three model systems including vacuum, air and deionized water. It is found that there is excellent agreement between these three model systems with theoretical predictions. In addition, the frequency dependence on the third harmonic response measured in deionized water reveals the existence of a very low working frequency below 60 mHz. The thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluid (water-based single-wall CNT solution) were determined to be 0.73 +/- 0.013 W m(-1) K-1 and 14 900 +/- 260 W m(-2) K-1, respectively, which correspond to an enhancement of 19.4% in thermal conductivity and 18.9% in convective heat transfer as compared to water.