A

Seminar
on
Heat Transfer Enhancement Using
Nanofluids

Submitted By:

Under Supervision :

Nilesh Panwar

Dr. Anil Vyas

OBJECTIVES
To improve the heat transfer rate of base fluid by
adding nano particles.
Answer to this question Nanofluids can replace
common basefluids?

Introduction
Heat transfers are used in many industrial area.
Natural Convective Heat Transfer by Nano
Fluids is nothing but exchange of thermal energy
and heat between the physical system by nano
fluids.
Convective heat transfer is the transfer of heat by
movement of fluids.
Nano fluids, a name conceived by Dr.Choi , in
Argonne National Laboratory.

Nanofluids
Nanofluids are dilute liquid suspensions of
nanoparticles with at least one of their principal
dimensions smaller than 100nm.
Nanofluids are dispersions of nanometer
sized metal/metal oxide, carbon nanotubes,
diamond or any other nanoparticles in a
liquid medium.
These fluids have shown a significant
increase in the thermal conductivity
compared to the base fluid.
These fluids have a great potential to
replace current coolants and heat transfer

What is a Nanofluid?

Al2O3 nanoparticle

Water as a basefluid

Nanofluid Based on Al2O3

Materials for Nanoparticles and Base Fluids

k nanoparticles > k base fluids
Nanoparticle materials include

Base fluids include

Oxide ceramics such as Al2O3, CuO

Water

Metal carbides such as SiC

Ethylene- or tri-ethylene-glycols and

Nitrides such as AlN, SiN

other coolants

Metals such as Al, Cu

Oil and other lubricants

Nonmetals such as Graphite, carbon

Bio-fluids

nanotubes
Layered such as Al + Al2O3, Cu + C
PCM such as S/S

Polymer solutions
Other common fluids

Characteristic Features of Nanofluids

Nanofluids have an unprecedented combination of the four characteristic features desired in energy systems (fluid and thermal systems):

Increased thermal conductivity at low nanoparticle

concentrations
Strong temperature-dependent thermal conductivity
Non-linear increase in thermal conductivity with
nanoparticle concentration
Increase in boiling critical heat flux

Why Use Nanoparticles

.Nanoparticles stay suspended much longer than micro-particles and, if
below a threshold level and/or enhanced with surfactants/stabilizers, remain
in suspension almost indefinitely.
Furthermore, the surface area per unit volume of nanoparticles is much
larger (million times) than that of microparticles (the number of surface
atoms per unit of interior atoms of nanoparticles, is very large).
These properties can be utilized to develop stable suspensions with
enhanced flow, heat-transfer, and other characteristics.
Due to Nano size particles, pressure drop is minimum.
High thermal conductivity of nanoparticle increases the heat transfer rate.
Nanofluids are most suitable for rapid heating and cooling system.
The suspended nanoparticles increase the surface area and the heat
capacity of the fluid.

Methods for Producing

Nanoparticles/Nanofluids
Two nanofluid production methods has been developed in ANL to allow
selection of the most appropriate nanoparticle material for a particular

application.
In two-step process , nanoparticles are produced by evaporation and
inert-gas condensation processing, and then dispersed (mixed, including
mechanical agitation and sonification) in base fluid.
In one-step process simultaneously makes and disperses nanoparticles
directly into base fluid; best for metallic nanofluids.

One step method

The one-step process consists of simultaneously
making and dispersing the particles in the fluid.
The vacuum-SANSS (submerged arc nanoparticle
synthesis system) is an efficient method to prepare
nanofluids using different dielectric liquids.
One-step physical method cannot synthesize
nanofluids in large scale, and the cost is also high, so
the one-step chemical method is developing rapidly.

Two step method

In this method nanoparticles, nanofibers, nanotubes, or
other nanomaterials used are first produced as dry powders
by chemical or physical methods.
Then, the nanosized powder will be dispersed into a fluid in
the second processing step with the help of intensive
magnetic force agitation, ultrasonic agitation, high-shear
mixing, homogenizing, and ball milling.
Two-step method is the most economic method to produce
nanofluids in large scale.

Thermal conductivity
Nanofluids exhibit enhanced thermal conductivity, which
goes up with increasing volumetric fraction of
nanoparticles.
The effects of several important factors such as particle size
and shapes, clustering of particles, temperature of the fluid,
and dissociation of surfactant can be seen on the thermal
conductivity of nanofluids.

Thermal Conductivity
According to the report of Argonne National Laboratory, these
parameters effect the thermal conductivity of nanofluids, they got
these results from about 124 researchers experiments so these effects
are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Particle volume concentration

Particle materials
Particle size
Particle shape
Base fluid material
Temperature
Acidity

Effect of Particle Volume Concentration :

From the study the general trend is
clear: thermal conductivity
enhancement increases with increase
particle volume concentration.
(Al in water) Al2O3.

Effect of Particle Material :

The thermal conductivity ratio
is seen to increase faster for
metal than oxide particles.
(Particles in ethylene glycol)

Effect of Particle Size :

Most of the study report that the larger
particle diameters produce a large
enhancement in thermal conductivity
but in some cases the experiments
show the different thing.
A consistent trend appears where in
the larger particle diameters produce a
large enhancement in thermal
conductivity.
(Al in water) Al2O3

Effect of Particle Shape :

All of the study indicate that elongated
particles are superior to spherical for
thermal conductivity enhancement.
(SiC in water).

Effect of Base Fluid Material :

The study show increased thermal
conductivity enhancement for poorer
(lower thermal conductivity) heat
transfer fluid. The results show the least
enhancement for water, which is the
best heat transfer fluid with the highest
thermal conductivity of the fluids
compared.
(Al in fluids) Al2O3

Effect of Temperature :
The trend of all study shows increased
thermal conductivity enhancement
with increased temperature.
(Al in water) Al2O3

Effect of Acidity (PH) :

Limited studies have been published on the effect of fluid acidity on the thermal
conductivity enhancement of nanofluids.
But the general trend is that acidity increases the thermal conductivity
enhancement.
(Al in water) Al2O3

Effect of Particle Clustering :

Some times nanofluids are in form of

cluster when the concentration is high
or when the time is increase.
It is accepted that heat transfer is a
surface phenomenon and the thermal
energy interaction take places at the
surface of nanoparticles.
When the particles get agglomerated,
the effective surface area to volume
ratio decreases, thus reducing the
effective area of thermal interaction of
particles causing a decrease in the
thermal conductivity of the fluid.

Experimental Studies on Thermal Conductivity of Nanofluids

Investigator

Particles

Size (nm)

Fluids

Eastman et al

Al2O3/CuO/Cu

33/36/

water,oil

Lee et al

Al2O3/CuO

24.4,38.4/18.6,23.6

water,EG 20%

Das et al

Al2O3/CuO

38.4/28.6

water

Hong et al

Fe

10

EG

Li and Peterson

Al2O3/CuO

36/29

water

Liu et al

CNTs

20-30 m

EG,EO

Observations

60% improvement
for 5 vol%
CuO particles in
water.
improvement for 4
vol%
Cuo/EG mixture.
2-4 fold increase
over range of
21oC to 52oC.
18% increase for
0.55 vol% Fe/EG
nanofluids.
enhancement with
volume fraction
and temperature
12.4% for EG at 1
vol%, 30% for
EO at 2 vol%.

Conclusion
Adding nanoparticles to common basefluids essentially changes the thermophysical
properties of basefluids :
Thermal conductivity increased
Viscosity decreased
Density decreased
Specific heat increased
Heat transfer rate increases with increasing concentration of nanoparticle.
Heat transfer rate is directly proportional to the Reynolds number and peclet number of
Nano fluid.
The fine grade of Nano particles increases the heat transfer rate but its having poor
stability.
Clustering and collision of nanoparticles is main factor to affect the heat transfer rate
of Nano fluid.
Concentration of nanoparticles increases the pressure drop of Nano fluid.
Spherical shaped nanoparticles increases the heat transfer rate of Nano fluid compared
with other shaped nanoparticles.
20

ADVANTAGES OF NANOFLUIDS
Reduced required Pumping Power
Minimal Clogging
Miniaturized Systems
Compared with suspended particles of millimeter-or-micrometer
dimensions which were used in base fluids to enhance heat transfer of
such fluids, nanofluids exhibit higher thermal conductivities.
Many types of particles such as metallic and non-metallic, can be added
into fluids to form nanofluids.
Suspended particles of the order of millimeters or even micrometers
may cause some severe problems such abrasive action of the particles
causes erosion of pipelines which are not that severe in case of
nanofluids.

DISADVANTAGES OF NANOFLUIDS
High Processing cost
Agglomeration at higher pH value and also at high
temperatures because of the ability of the particle to overcome
thermal energy barrier leading to an increase in van der waals
forces and hence resulting in decrease of conductivity.
Use of surfactants for stability which results in lowering of
conductivity due to the formation of a thermal boundary layer
around the particles.

Smart fluids

In a recent paper published in the March 2009 issue of Physical

Review Letters, Donzelli showed that a particular class of nanofluids
can be used as a smart material working as a heat valve to control the
flow of heat. The nanofluid can be readily configured either in a
low state, where it conducts heat poorly, or in a high state,
where the dissipation is more efficient.

Nuclear Reactors
Possible applications include pressurized water
reactor (PWR) primary coolant, standby safety
systems, accelerator targets, plasma divertors,
and so forth.

Nanofluid in Fuel
It was shown that the combustion of diesel fuel
mixed with aqueous aluminum nanofluid increased
the total combustion heat while decreasing the
concentration of smoke and nitrous oxide in the
exhaust emission from the diesel engine.

Cooling of Microchips
A principal limitation on developing smaller
microchips is the rapid heat dissipation.
However, nanofluids can be used for liquid
cooling of computer processors due to their
high thermal conductivity.