Characterization of TiO2, Al2O3 and SiO2 Nanoparticle based Cutting Fluids

Extravagant use of conventional cutting fluids during conventional wet machining and wrong methods of its disposal can affect human health and the environment badly. This has led to the development of new class of cutting fluid enriched with nanoparticles having better thermo physical and tribological properties. In this work, three different nanofluids are prepared by mixing Titanium dioxide (TiO2), Silicon oxide (SiO2) and Aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles in vegetable oil-water emulsion at room temperature in different volumetric concentrations. Furthermore, its thermal conductivity, specific heat, density and viscosity are measured at different temperatures for various nanoparticle volumetric concentrations. The results reveal that increase of nanoparticle concentration in base fluid increased its thermal conductivity, viscosity and decreases its specific heat. The thermal conductivity, density, specific heat and viscosity of three different nanofluids are compared with each other and found that addition of nanoparticles into base fluid enhanced its cooling ability without much affecting its viscosity and it is also noticed that Al2O3nanofluid exhibits better thermal properties among all three nanofluids. (C) 2015Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.