Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 210216

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Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

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Experimental investigations and theoretical determination of thermal conductivity and viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouid
M. Chandrasekar a, S. Suresh a,*, A. Chandra Bose b
a b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli 620 015, India Nanomaterials Laboratory, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli 620 015, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
Experimental investigations and theoretical determination of effective thermal conductivity and viscosity of Al2O3/H2O nanouid are reported in this paper. The nanouid was prepared by synthesizing Al2O3 nanoparticles using microwave assisted chemical precipitation method, and then dispersing them in distilled water using a sonicator. Al2O3/water nanouid with a nominal diameter of 43 nm at different volume concentrations (0.335%) at room temperature were used for the investigation. The thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanouids are measured and it is found that the viscosity increase is substantially higher than the increase in thermal conductivity. Both the thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanouids increase with the nanoparticle volume concentration. Theoretical models are developed to predict thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanouids without resorting to the well established Maxwell and Einstein models, respectively. The proposed models show reasonably good agreement with our experimental results. 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 3 March 2009 Received in revised form 10 August 2009 Accepted 21 October 2009

Keywords: Nanouids Thermal conductivity Viscosity Volume concentration

1. Introduction The application of emerging nanotechnology in the traditional thermal engineering has resulted in the formation of a new class of heat transfer uids called as nanouids. Nanouid is prepared by dispersing solid particles, bers, or tubes with lengths on the order of 150 nm in traditional heat transfer uid such as water, engine oil, and ethylene glycol (EG) which are inherently poor heat transfer uids. Due to small sizes and very large specic surface areas of the nanoparticles, nanouids have superior properties like high thermal conductivity, minimal clogging in ow passages, long-term stability, and homogeneity. Hence, nanouids have a wide range of potential applications like electronics, automotive, and nuclear applications where improved heat transfer or efcient heat dissipation is required. Choi [1] conceived the concept of nanouids in 1995 which can enhance heat transfer without a large pumping power increase at Argonne National Laboratory of USA. Subsequent researches of Eastman et al. [2] and Choi et al. [3] triggered great interest in nanouids when they reported anomalously high thermal conductivities of nanouids at low nanoparticle concentrations. Hence in the past few years, many experimental investigations on the thermal conductivity of nanouids have been reported which showed that nanouids exhibit much higher thermal conductivities than their base uids even
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9842031537; fax: +91 0431 2500133. E-mail address: ssuresh@nitt.edu (S. Suresh). 0894-1777/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.expthermusci.2009.10.022

when the concentrations of suspended nanoparticles are very low and the nanouid thermal conductivity increase signicantly with nanoparticle volume concentration. Reported results of the effective thermal conductivity of nanouids from various research groups were well summarized by Murshed et al. [4] in a recent review. Recently, Choi et al. [5] showed that the thermal conductivity of transformer oil can be increased by more than 20% at 4% volume concentration of Al2O3 nanoparticles while with aluminium nitride (AlN) nanoparticles at a volume concentration of 0.5%, the thermal conductivity is enhanced by 8%. Duangthongsuk and Wongwises [6] experimentally found that the TiO2 nanoparticles dispersed in water gave 37% greater thermal conductivity than water with volume concentration ranging between 0.2% and 2.0%. Li et al. [7] recommended simultaneous control of both the pH and chemical surfactant to improve the thermal conductivity of Cu/H2O nanouids for practical applications. They reported a maximum thermal conductivity enhancement of 10.7% at 0.10% weight concentration. The effective thermal conductivities of Al2O3/water nanouids with low volume concentrations from 0.01% to 0.3% were measured at 21 C by Lee et al. [8]. They observed a maximum enhancement of 1.44% at a volume concentration of 0.3%. Hence, several new concepts and mechanisms have been proposed in the last decade to account for this anomalously enhanced thermal conductivity. Some of these proposed mechanisms include nanolayer, aggregation, percolation like behavior, interfacial thermal resistance, Brownian motion of nanoparticles, nanoconvection

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Nomenclature Cp d k M q T t specic heat of uid (J/kg K) particle size (m) thermal conductivity (W/mK) molecular weight (kg/kmole) heat transfer per unit length (W/m) temperature (C) time (s) k mean free path (m) uid dynamic viscosity (N s/m2) density (kg/m3)

l q

Greek letters / volumetric concentration of particles (%) g intrinsic viscosity

Subscripts e effective m maximum nf nanouid s solid particles r relative

and surface charge mode. Hot debates are ongoing in the nanouids community on the validity of proposed mechanisms and models of heat conduction in nanouids. A number of mechanisms and models of enhanced conductivity have been proposed, but none has gained universal support [9]. While these thermal properties are important for heat transfer applications, the viscosity is also important in designing nanouids for ow and heat transfer applications because the pressure drop and the resulting pumping power depend on the viscosity. Compared to the works on thermal conductivity of nanouids, only a few studies have been reported on the rheological behavior of nanouids. Kang et al. [10] measured the viscosities of UDD (ultra dispersed diamond)/ethylene glycol, silver/water, and silica/water nanouids. They found that the viscosity increase was 50% for UDD/EG nanouid, 30% increase for silver/water and 20% increase for silica/water nanouids at volume concentrations of 1%, 2% and 3%, respectively. Prasher et al. [11] demonstrated the viscosity of alumina/propylene glycol (PG) nanouids was independent of shear rate, proving that the nanouids are Newtonian in nature and increases as nanoparticle volume concentration increases. They found a 30% increase in viscosity at 3% volume concentration and attributed this increase to aggregation of the nanoparticles in the nanouid with the size of the aggregates around three times the size of the individual nanoparticles. The effect due to temperature and particle volume concentration on the dynamic viscosity for the Al2O3/water nanouid has been experimentally investigated by Nguyen et al. [12]. They found that, in general, nanouid dynamic viscosity increases considerably with particle volume concentration but clearly decreases with a temperature increase. Their results have revealed the existence of a critical temperature beyond which the particle suspension properties seem to be drastically altered, which, in turn, has triggered a hysteresis phenomenon. The hysteresis phenomenon has raised serious doubts regarding the reliability of using nanouids for heat transfer enhancement purposes. Murshed et al. [13] measured relative viscosity data for TiO2 and Al2O3/water-based nanouids, and reported a maximum enhancement of 80% at 4% and 5%, respectively. Similar increments in viscosity were reported earlier by Masuda et al. [14] and Wang et al. [15]. As organic uids like EG are more favorable for the dispersion of nanosized particles compared to water, experimental work of Xie et al. [16] showed enhancement ratios of the viscosity of EG based Al2O3 suspensions smaller than those of water based suspensions, indicating the signicant inuence of the base uid on the viscosity of the nanouids. They also studied the dependence of the viscosity on pH values. The isoelectric point is determined to be 9.2 for alumina nanoparticles. When pH is far from this, the nanoparticles are well dispersed because of the very large repulsive forces among the nanoparticles. The repulsion among nanoparticles decreases when pH value is close to isoelectric point. This causes coagulation or

aggregation of nanoparticles and the viscosity increases for a nanouid with pH value close to isoelectric point. Namburu et al. [17] presented an experimental investigation of rheological properties of copper oxide nanoparticles suspended in ethylene glycol and water over temperatures ranging from 35 C to 50 C to demonstrate their applicability in baseboard heaters in homes, heat exchangers, automobiles and in industrial plants in cold regions of the world. The ratio of effective viscosity of nanouids to that of base uid can be calculated by many theoretical models. A few of the frequently used models [6,12,18,19] which have their own limitations and applications are listed in Table 1. With a maximum packing fraction um = 0.5 and g = 2.5, the Murshed et al. [13] showed that the measured viscosities of Al2O3/water and TiO2/water nanouids were under predicted by KD model. On the other hand, Chen et al. [20] showed that the viscosity of nanouids can be predicted by the KD model if the volume concentration is replaced by the volume concentration of nanoparticle aggregates. According to them, for spherical nanoparticles, an aggregate size of approximately three times the primary nanoparticle size gives the best prediction of the experimental data. They also proposed that the rheological behavior of nanouids could be categorized into four groups like (i) dilute nanouids (with volume concentration less than 0.1%) whose viscosity ts with the Einstein equation and there is no discernible shear-thinning behavior; (ii) semi-dilute nanouids (with 0.15% volume concentration) with aggregation of nanoparticles, whose viscosity ts the modied KriegerDougherty equation and there is no obvious shear-thinning behavior; (iii) semi-concentrated nanouids (with 510% volume concentration) with aggregation of nanoparticles and the viscosity ts the modied KriegerDougherty equation and there is obvious shear-thinning behavior; and (iv) concentrated nanouids (with volume concentration greater than 10%) with interpenetration of aggregation and this is out of the normal concentration range of nanouids. Despite recent advances, much more works involving theoretical, experimental, and numerical research are necessary to solve the mysteries of nanouids [9]. Putnam et al. [21] has indicated that the investigations of the properties of nanouids have reached the awkward situation of having a greater number of competing theoretical models than systematic experimental results. Recognizing that experimental studies had not quite kept pace with theoretical studies, we believe that there remains a critical need for further systematic experimental studies to achieve meaningful progress in understanding heat transport phenomena in nanouids. Though, Lee et al. [8] have presented the effective viscosities and thermal conductivities of Al2O3/water nanouids, their work focused on nanouid containing low volume concentrations of Al2O3 nanoparticles up to 0.3% only. Moreover, they purchased the nanoparticles from a commercial source where there is always

212 Table 1 Models for viscosity of nanouids. S. No. 1 2 3 4 5 Model Einstein model Batchelor model Ward model Renewed Ward model KriegerDougherty equation (KD model)

M. Chandrasekar et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 210216

Equation
nf lr ll 1 g/ lnf lr l 1 g/ g/2 nf lr ll 1 g/ g/2 g/3 nf lr ll 1 g/e g/e 2 g/e 3 nf lr ll

Remarks Applicable when u < 1% and when there is no interaction between the particles Brownian motion of the nanoparticles and the interaction between them was taken into account in this model and it is an extension of the Einstein model An exponential model for u up to 35% The inuence of liquid layering is taken into account to calculate u. u is replaced by ue It reduces to the Einstein equation if a monomial expansion is performed, whereas a binomial expansion will lead to the Batchelor model

/ /m

g/m

where g is the intrinsic viscosity which is equal to 2.5 for hard spheres.

a speculation about the purity and the size of the nanoparticles as claimed by the vendor. No new theoretical models for predicting thermal conductivity and viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouids were proposed by them. Hence with the objective to contribute to the expanding nanouid properties database, experimental investigations of thermal conductivity and viscosity measurements on Al2O3/water nanouid having volume concentration up to 3% and 5%, respectively, are made and the results are presented in this paper. In addition, theoretical models are developed for thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanouids without resorting to the well established Maxwell and Einstein models, respectively.

2. Experiments 2.1. Synthesis of nanoparticle and nanouid Nanocrystalline alumina (Al2O3) powder has been prepared from an aqueous solution of aluminium chloride by microwave assisted chemical precipitation method. 0.1 M of aluminium chloride was taken (aqueous solution) in a round bottom ask tted with a reux water condenser. The solution was hydrolyzed for 20 min and the resulting solution was neutralized with ammonia solution. The precipitate formed is washed with distilled water and dried. The XRD spectra and the SEM image of the prepared sample are shown in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively. Nanouid with a required volume concentration was then prepared by dispersing a specied amount of Al2O3 nanoparticles in water by using a ultrasonic vibrator (Toshiba, India) generating ultrasonic pulses of 100 W at 36 3 kHz. To get a uniform dispersion and stable suspension

Fig. 2. SEM photograph of Al2O3 particles.

which determine the nal properties of nanouids, the nanouids are kept under ultrasonic vibration continuously for 6 h [8]. No surfactant or pH changes were used as they may have some inuence on the effective thermal conductivity of nanouids [22]. The pH of the prepared nanouids at different concentrations were measured and found to be around 5 which is far from the isoelectric point of 9.2 for alumina nanoparticles [16]. This ensures the nanoparticles are well dispersed and the nanouid is stable because of very large repulsive forces among the nanoparticles when pH is far from isoelectric point. 2.2. Thermal conductivity measurement Al2O3/water nanouids up to 3% volume concentrations were used for thermal conductivity measurements while nanouids up to 5% volume concentrations were used for viscosity measurements. This is because the minimum amount of nanouid required for thermal conductivity and viscosity measurements are 45 and 2 ml, respectively, and hence the experiments were done independently with different samples due to the limitations in synthesizing the nanoparticles in bulk quantities. The thermal conductivity of Al2O3/water nanouid was measured by using a KD2 Pro thermal properties analyzer (Decagon Devices, Inc., USA). It consists of a handheld microcontroller and sensor needles. The KD2s sensor needle contains both a heating element and a thermistor. The controller module contains a battery, a 16-bit microcontroller/AD converter, and power control circuitry. The thermal conductivity measurement assumes several things like: (i) the long heat source can be treated as an innitely long heat source; (ii) the medium is both homogeneous and isotro-

Fig. 1. XRD pattern of Al2O3 particles.

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213

pic, and at uniform initial temperature, T0. Although these assumptions are not true in the strict sense, they are adequate for accurate thermal properties measurements. The sensor needle used was KS1 which is made of stainless steel having a length of 60 mm and a diameter of 1.3 mm, and closely approximates the innite line heat source which gives least disturbance to the sample during measurements. The sensor needle can be used for measuring thermal conductivity of uids in the range of 0.22 W/mK with an accuracy of 5%. Each measurement cycle consists of 90 s. During the rst 30 s, the instrument will equilibrate which is then followed by heating and cooling of sensor needle for 30 s each. At the end of the reading, the controller computes the thermal conductivity using the change in temperature (DT)time data from

bubbles in the uid would oat to the top away from the needle as shown in Fig. 3. 2.3. Viscosity measurement The viscosity of the nanouid was measured using Brookeld cone and plate viscometer (LVDV-I PRIME C/P) equipped with a 2.4 cm 0.8 cone (Fig. 4) supplied by Brookeld engineering laboratories of USA. The cone is connected to the spindle drive while the plate is mounted in the sample cup. Spindle used was CPE-40 which can be used for samples in the viscosity range of 0.3 1028 cP. Using electronic gap adjusting feature provided with the viscometer, a gap of 0.013 mm between the cone and the plate is maintained within which the test uid is placed. As the spindle is rotated, the viscous drag of the uid against the spindle is measured by the deection of the calibrated spring. Cone and plate geometry requires a sample volume of only 0.52 ml and hence the temperature equilibrium is achieved rapidly within a minute. The spindle type and speed combination will produce satisfactory results when the applied torque is between 10% and 100% of the maximum permissible torque. Hence during measurements, the readings were discarded if the applied torque does not fall within this prescribed range. The spindle speeds available with this viscometer falls in the range of 0100 rpm and the shear rate range is 0750 s1. The viscometer was benchmarked with distilled water, glycerin and ethylene glycol at room temperature. The measured values of viscosity for distilled water, glycerin and ethylene glycol were 0.82, 10.9 and 360.5 cP, respectively, which agree well with the literature values of 0.79, 10.7 and 352 cP, respectively, with 5% accuracy. 3. Theoretical models 3.1. Thermal conductivity The Maxwell model [25] was the rst model developed to determine the effective electrical or thermal conductivity of liquidsolid suspensions. This model is applicable to statistically homogeneous and low volume fraction liquidsolid suspensions with randomly dispersed, uniformly sized and noninteracting spherical particles. The Maxwell equation is

qln t2 ln t 1 4pDT 2 DT 1

where q is constant heat rate applied to an innitely long and small line source, DT1 and DT2 are the changes in the temperature at times t1 and t2, respectively. The ASTM D5334 [23] and IEEE 442-1981 standards [24] suggest collecting temperature (T)time (t) data over a 1000 s heat time, plotting the data on semilog graph paper, selecting a segment of the data by eye that appears to t a straight line, selecting two points on that line and computing k from Eq. (1). The KD2 analyzer used in our experiments collects data at 1 s intervals during a 30 s heating time and a 30 s cooling time. The nal 20 points during heating and cooling are used in a simultaneous least squares computation which determines k. Temperature is measured by a 16 bit A to D converter. All of the computations are done by an internal 16 bit microcontroller, and the result is displayed. Because all the computations are done internally, there is no need to record individual temperature values. In addition, forty data points are used to determine the value of k rather than just two. The other advantage of using KD2 Pro analyzer is that the manual or eye tting of data is eliminated.The calibration of the sensor needle was carried out rst by measuring thermal conductivity of distilled water, glycerin and ethylene glycol. The measured values for distilled water, glycerin and ethylene glycol were 0.611, 0.292 and 0.263 W/mK, respectively, which are in agreement with the literature values of 0.613, 0.285 and 0.252 W/mK, respectively, within 5% accuracy. Nanouid samples of 45 ml were taken in a vial of 30 mm diameter whose cap is equipped with a septum through which the sensor needle was inserted. For accurate measurements, the needle was inserted fully into the uid, and oriented vertically and centrally inside the vial without touching the side walls of the vial. Insertion of the sensor needle probe into the uid in this orientation will minimize errors from free convection. In addition, the vial of nanouid was turned upside down on the top of the needle so that any

kr

knf ks 2k 2/Dk ks 2k /Dk k

where Dk = ks kA great number of extensions to the Maxwell equation have been carried out ever since Maxwells initial investigation. These extensions take into account various factors related to thermal conductivity like particle shape, particle distribution, high volume concentration, Brownian motion induced nanoconvection, liquid layering, particle clustering and interface contact resistance. Although many models for predicting thermal conductivity of liquid have been developed, they are all inaccurate [26]. A simple relationship proposed by Weber predicts [27] the thermal conduc-

Fig. 3. KD2 Pro thermal properties analyzer. 1 Vial, 2 sensor, 3 septum, 4 cable, 5 microcontroller.

Fig. 4. Cone and plate assembly. 1 Cone, 2 plate.

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tivity of liquids with accuracy usually within 15% and the equation is

 q 1 3 k 3:59 109 C p q M

In our previous work [28], we have extended this to predict the thermal conductivity of nanouids as

the apparent sphericity of the particle. In the nanotechnology, it is possible that the Knudsen number (the ratio between the mean free path and the characteristic length) becomes comparable to or higher than one. Hence in the present investigation, this model (Eq. (11)) which considers the mean free path is used to predict the effective viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouids. 4. Results and discussion

knf 3:59 109 C p;nf qnf

qnf

1 3

M nf

4
The powder XRD was carried out with a Rigaku X-ray diffractometer by Cu-ka1 radiation in the range of 2080. All the reections on the XRD pattern (Fig. 1) can be indexed to the tetragonal phase of Al2O3 using Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards (JCPDS). The average grain size is calculated to be 43 nm using the Sherrer formula. The microstructure of the powder sample was characterized by Jeol JSM 6360 SEM which shows that the particles are highly agglomerated under atmospheric condition, which is of the order of micrometers as seen in the SEM photograph shown in Fig. 2. During thermal conductivity measurements, the temperature rise of the nanouid sample observed during 30 s heating time was in the range of 0.30.4 C (0.010.0133 C/s). This ensures that the heat pulse given by the sensor needle is very small and hence, thermally driven convection currents in the sample are avoided which in turn avoids any disturbances in the sample during measurements. The thermal conductivity for each volume concentration of the nanouid was measured for a period of about 3 h after sonication at an interval of 15 min. Fifteen minutes time was allowed between successive measurements for the temperature of the sensor needle and sample to re-equilibrate. The average of data points that did not appreciably vary over the last 1 h is reported in this paper. The measure of how well the measured data ts with the model given in Eq. (1) is represented by r2 value that is shown in the display screen of the microcontroller. As a good data set will give r2 values above 0.9990, the measured data were discarded if the r2 value is than 0.9990 during the experiments. Fig. 5 shows the thermal conductivity of Al2O3/water nanouids as a function of particle volume concentration. The results show that the thermal conductivity of nanouids signicantly increases linearly with increasing particle volume concentration. The thermal conductivity enhancements of current Al2O3/water nanouids are 1.64%, 3.28%, 3.43%, 7.52% and 9.7%, correlated to volume concentrations of 0.33%, 0.75%, 1%, 2% and 3%. The current experimental data agree well with the measured data of Das et al. [22]. A linear relationship between the thermal conductivity enhancement and volume concentration can be attributed to large regions

By assuming that the nanoparticles are well dispersed within the base uid, the thermo-physical properties of the particle uid mixture can be evaluated using Eqs. (5)(7). Properties with subscript s are for nanoparticles while without subscripts are for base uid.

qnf 1 /q /qs qC p nf 1 /qC p /qs C p;s

M nf 1 M M /Ms

5 6 7

The ratio of thermal conductivity is dened as the ratio of thermal conductivity of nanouid to that of the base uid. Hence, from Eqs. (3) and (4), the generalized form of relative thermal conductivity can be cast as

     knf C p;nf a qnf b M c M nf k Cp q

where a, b and c are the exponents to be determined from experiments. The relevant thermo-physical properties of water and alumina nanoparticles are summarized in Table 2. 3.2. Viscosity Starting from the model of the mean free path of Fullman [29], Noni et al. [30] derived recently an expression for relative viscosity of suspensions of solid particles in a liquid medium as

lr 1 a

1 kn

where the constants a and n depend on material characteristics while the mean free path (k) is dened given as

2 1 / d 3 /  n

10

Substituting Eq. (10) in Eq. (9) and for a given particle size,

lr 1 b

/ 1/

11

The above model was used by Noni et al. [30] to predict the rheological behavior of alumina (average size 1.20 lm, 3.65 g/cm3) and kaolin (average size 3.73 lm, 2.48 g/cm3) suspensions. The coefcients b and n were calculated as 1631 and 2.8, respectively, by least squares regression analysis. The constant b is expected to be inuenced by two contributions. One, related to electromagnetic aspects, could vary depending on interaction between phases, composition and properties of the liquid phase and also additives. The other contribution, related with mechanicalgeometrical aspects of the particles like the specic surface area, the density and

Table 2 Thermo-physical properties of water and alumina nanoparticles at 300 K. Property Density, kg/m3 Specic heat, J/kg K Molecular weight, kg/kmole Water 997 4170 18 Al2O3 3880 729 101

Fig. 5. Thermal conductivity ratio of Al2O3/water nanouid as a function of volume concentration.

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Fig. 6. Comparison between the experimental and predicted values of thermal conductivity ratio.

Fig. 8. Relative viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouid as a function of volume concentration.

of particle-free liquid with high thermal resistances created by highly agglomerated nanoparticles. The relationship between the thermal conductivity enhancement and volume concentration is usually nonlinear for nanoparticles with a high aspect ratio (such as MCNTs, nanorod, etc.), or nanoparticle alignment [31]. It can be seen that all the experimental data points are very close to the line tted with the predicted values of our new model (Eq. (8)). Using regression analysis, the exponents a, b and c in Eq. (8) are xed as 0.023, 1.358 and 0.126, respectively, for Al2O3/water nanouids. Fig. 6 shows that there is a maximum deviation of 2% between the experimental and predicted data which supports the validity of the new thermal conductivity model based on Weber formula. Fig. 7 shows the shear rate as a function of shear stress for various volume concentrations. It can be seen that the shear stress depends linearly on the shear rate for all volume concentrations, indicating the Newtonian behavior of Al2O3/water nanouid. The slope of line increases with increase in volume concentration which indicates that the viscosity of the nanouid increases with increase in volume concentration. Fig. 8 shows the relative viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouids as a function of particle volume concentration. The current viscosity data (at room temperature) show an excellent agreement with the measurement of Nguyen

et al. [12] though they used an entirely different measurement technique. A maximum increase in viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouids observed is 2.36 times that of water at 5% volume concentration. The results show that the relative viscosity increase is almost linear up to 2% volume concentration and agrees well with the Einstein equation. However at higher concentrations, the increase in relative viscosity shows a nonlinear relationship with volume concentration. This may be due to the hydrodynamic interactions between particles which become important as the disturbance of the uid around one particle interacts with that around other particles at higher volume concentrations. Fig. 8 also shows the comparison between the present model predictions and experimental data for viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouid. It is seen that the predicted viscosity by the present model are in good agreement with our experimental data as well the data of Nguyen et al. [12]. As the constant b needs further analysis and study for nanoparticle suspensions, it is xed as 5300 by tting with the present experimental data while the exponent n is assigned with 2.8. This value seems to be reasonable as the electromagnetic aspects would become important due to increased surface area of the nanoparticles and the complexities involved with the interaction of multiple nanoparticles. Fig. 9 shows that the model predicts the viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouid within +3% and 15%.

Fig. 7. Shear stress as a function of shear rate.

Fig. 9. Comparison between the experimental and predicted values of relative viscosity.

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5. Conclusions In this paper, we have experimentally investigated the effective thermal conductivities and viscosities of water-based nanouids containing Al2O3 nanoparticles (Al2O3/water nanouids). For this purpose, we synthesized Al2O3 nanoparticles having an average diameter of 43 nm by microwave assisted chemical precipitation method. Then, Al2O3/water nanouids with various volume concentrations from 0.33% to 5% were prepared using a two step method with ultrasonication and without any surfactant. The thermal conductivity and viscosity of the nanouid were measured using a KD2 Pro thermal properties analyzer and Brookeld cone and plate viscometer, respectively. The measured thermal conductivities of the Al2O3/water nanouids increase linearly with volume concentration. In contrast to thermal conductivity, the viscosity was observed to have a nonlinear relation at volume concentration greater than 2% and such behavior reveals that the hydrodynamic interactions between particles becomes important as the disturbance of the uid around one particle interacts with that around other particles at higher volume concentrations. Furthermore, Al2O3/water nanouid exhibited Newtonian behavior. The models proposed for thermal conductivity and viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouids without resorting to the well established Maxwell and Einstein models, respectively, showed good agreement with our experimental results. Hence, the new thermal conductivity and viscosity models can be used for the prediction of thermal conductivity and viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouids when their volume concentrations are up to 3% and 5%, respectively. The viscosity model can be improved further by developing correlations for the constant b in terms of the uid/particle properties.

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