Experimental evaluation of heat transfer characteristics of silica nanofluid

The laminar convective heat transfer characteristics were investigated for silica nanofluid. An experimental loop was built to obtain heat transfer coefficients for single-phase nanofluids in a circular conduit in laminar flow regime. Thermal conductivity and viscosity measurements were conducted on the silica nanofluid to determine the thermophysical properties needed for analysis. Qualitative tests showed that the silica nanofluid was a stable colloidal suspension under the temperature range expected in the heated flow loop up to 80°C. Experiments were performed in the flow loop for the silica nanofluid at 0.2 Vol.%, 1 Vol.%, and 5 Vol.% concentrations. It was found that the heat transfer coefficient increased only slightly, but the heat transfer increase is within the experimental uncertainty of ±10%. The experiment results were in agreement with correlations using the as-measured thermal conductivity and viscosity of the nanofluid. It is concluded that silica nanofluid tested in this study showed no abnormal heat transfer enhancement in the laminar flow regime.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Zhang, Zihao, S.B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lin-Wen H.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60213

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/60213