Experimental study on thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol based nanofluids containing Al2O3 nanoparticles

To get more experimental and fundamental understanding of the thermal behavior of nanofluids, the thermal conductivity of Al2O3-EG nanofluids have been examined using a KD2-Pro thermal analyzer. The effects of temperature and concentration on thermal conductivity of nanofluid are investigated. The experiments performed at temperature ranging from 24 degrees C to 50 degrees C while volume fractions up to 5%. The experimental results exhibited that the thermal conductivity of nanofluids enhances significantly with increase in concentration and temperature. Also, attempts were made to propose new accurate correlations for estimating thermal conductivity at different temperatures and concentrations. For this purpose, two new correlations with very high accuracy were suggested. To estimate thermal conductivity at different temperatures, focusing more on accuracy and usability, several correlations have been proposed. These correlations have been presented separately at different temperatures which can be more accurate. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.