Sensitivity of thermal conductivity for Al2O3 nanofluids

Present work deals with synthesis, characterization and the sensitivity study of thermal conductivity of Al2O3 nanofluids in different base fluids with change in concentration and temperature. In this work, the solution combustion synthesis method was used for synthesis and samples were combusted at three different temperatures. It was observed that increase in combustion temperature leads to the increase in particle size. Al2O3 nanoparticles combusted at 1000 degrees C, having average particle size 53 nm, were used for preparation of nanofluids in distilled water and ethylene glycol base fluids using two step approach. For change in temperature from 10 to 70 degrees C and concentration variation from 0 to 2 vol%; 30 and 31% increase in thermal conductivity was observed for distilled water and ethylene glycol based Al2O3 nanofluids, respectively. Finally, sensitivity analysis for thermal conductivity was also performed. Results of sensitivity analysis revealed that change in thermal conductivity is more sensitive to increase in volume percent at higher concentration. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.