Study on stabilities, thermophysical properties and natural convective heat transfer characteristics of TiO2-water nanofluids

TiO2-water nanofluids with different mass fractions (omega = 0.1 wt%, omega = 0.3 wt% and omega = 0.5 wt%) are prepared respectively, and the stabilities are studied by scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, dynamic analysis method and settlement observation method. Additionally, thermophysical properties of nanofluids are discussed, and models of thermophysical properties are deduced. Then, an experimental installation and a two-phase lattice Boltzmann model for natural convection heat transfer are established in this paper and the effects of cavity ratio, heating power and nanoparticle mass fraction on heat transfer are discussed respectively. It can be obtained that the thermal conductivities of TiO2-water nanofluids can be improved by 5.23% to the utmost extent. However, the heat transfer can be enhanced by 34.2% in the maximum with the increase of nanoparticle mass fraction at the lowest heating power and the largest cavity ratio.