Empirical correlation finding the role of temperature and particle size for nanofluid (Al2O3) thermal conductivity enhancement

Abstract

In this letter, we report an experimental correlation [Eqs. (1a) and (1b) or (1c)] for the thermal conductivity of Al2O3 nanofluids as a function of nanoparticle size (ranging from 11nmto150nm nominal diameters) over a wide range of temperature (from 21to71°C). Following the previously proposed conjecture from the theoretical point-of-view (Jang and Choi, 2004), it is experimentally validated that the Brownian motion of nanoparticles constitutes a key mechanism of the thermal conductivity enhancement with increasing temperature and decreasing nanoparticle sizes.