Experimental convective heat transfer with nanofluids

Nanofluids are colloidal suspensions with nano-sized particles (<100nm) dispersed in a base fluid. From literature it is seen that these fluids exhibit better heat transfer characteristics. In our present work, thermal conductivity and the forced convective heat transfer coefficient of an alumina-water nanofluid is investigated. Thermal conductivity is measured by a steady state method using a Guarded Hot Plate apparatus customized for liquids. Forced convective heat transfer characteristics are evaluated with help of a test loop under constant heat flux condition. Controlled experiments under turbulent flow regime are carried out using two particle concentrations (0.5vol% and 1vol %). Experimental results show that, thermal conductivity of nanofluids increases with concentration, but the heat transfer coefficient in the turbulent regime does not exhibit any remarkable increase above measurement uncertainty. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.