A MODEL OF NANOFLUIDS EFFECTIVE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITYBASED ON DIMENSIONLESS GROUPS

摘要

Thermal conductivity is an important parameter in the field of nanofluid heat transfer. This article presents a novel model for theprediction of the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids based on dimensionless groups. The model expresses the thermal con-ductivity of a nanofluid as a function of the thermal conductivity of the solid and liquid, their volume fractions, particle size and in-terfacial shell properties. According to this model, thermal conductivity changes nonlinearly with nanoparticle loading. The resultsare in good agreement with the experimental data of alumina-water and alumina-ethylene glycol based nanofluids.