Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 210216

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs

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

Article history: Experimental investigations and theoretical determination of effective thermal conductivity and viscosity
Received 3 March 2009 of Al2O3/H2O nanouid are reported in this paper. The nanouid was prepared by synthesizing Al2O3
Received in revised form 10 August 2009 nanoparticles using microwave assisted chemical precipitation method, and then dispersing them in dis-
Accepted 21 October 2009
tilled water using a sonicator. Al2O3/water nanouid with a nominal diameter of 43 nm at different vol-
ume 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 sub-
Keywords:
stantially higher than the increase in thermal conductivity. Both the thermal conductivity and viscosity of
Nanouids
Thermal conductivity
nanouids increase with the nanoparticle volume concentration. Theoretical models are developed to
Viscosity predict thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanouids without resorting to the well established Max-
Volume concentration well and Einstein models, respectively. The proposed models show reasonably good agreement with our
experimental results.
2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction when the concentrations of suspended nanoparticles are very

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 or-
der of 150 nm in traditional heat transfer uid such as water, en-
gine 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 nano-
uids 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).
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 vol-
ume concentration ranging between 0.2% and 2.0%. Li et al. [7] rec-
ommended simultaneous control of both the pH and chemical
surfactant to improve the thermal conductivity of Cu/H2O nano-
uids 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 mea-
sured 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 nano-
layer, aggregation, percolation like behavior, interfacial thermal
resistance, Brownian motion of nanoparticles, nanoconvection

0894-1777/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.expthermusci.2009.10.022
 M. Chandrasekar et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 210216
Nomenclature
Cp specic heat of uid (J/kg K)
d particle size (m)
k thermal conductivity (W/mK)
M molecular weight (kg/kmole)
q heat transfer per unit length (W/m)
T temperature (C)
t time (s)
Greek letters
/ volumetric concentration of particles (%)
g intrinsic viscosity
and surface charge mode. Hot debates are ongoing in the nano-
uids community on the validity of proposed mechanisms and mod-
els 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. Com-
pared 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 temper-
ature and particle volume concentration on the dynamic viscosity
for the Al2O3/water nanouid has been experimentally investi-
gated 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 dras-
tically altered, which, in turn, has triggered a hysteresis phenome-
non. The hysteresis phenomenon has raised serious doubts
regarding the reliability of using nanouids for heat transfer
enhancement purposes. Murshed et al. [13] measured relative vis-
cosity data for TiO2 and Al2O3/water-based nanouids, and re-
ported 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 sig-
nicant inuence of the base uid on the viscosity of the nano-
uids. 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
211
k mean free path (m)
l uid dynamic viscosity (N s/m2)
q density (kg/m3)
Subscripts
e effective
m maximum
nf nanouid
s solid particles
r relative
aggregation of nanoparticles and the viscosity increases for a nano-
uid 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 demon-
strate 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 fre-
quently 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 vis-
cosity of nanouids can be predicted by the KD model if the vol-
ume concentration is replaced by the volume concentration of
nanoparticle aggregates. According to them, for spherical nanopar-
ticles, 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 nano-
uids 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-thin-
ning 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 obvi-
ous shear-thinning behavior; (iii) semi-concentrated nanouids
(with 510% volume concentration) with aggregation of nanoparti-
cles and the viscosity ts the modied KriegerDougherty equa-
tion 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 theoreti-
cal, 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. Recog-
nizing that experimental studies had not quite kept pace with the-
oretical studies, we believe that there remains a critical need for
further systematic experimental studies to achieve meaningful
progress in understanding heat transport phenomena in nano-
uids. 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 M. Chandrasekar et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 210216
Table 1
Models for viscosity of nanouids.
S. Model Equation
No.
1 Einstein model lr llnf 1 g/
2 Batchelor model lr llnf 1 g/ g/2
3 Ward model lr llnf 1 g/ g/2 g/3
4 Renewed Ward model lr llnf 1 g/e g/e 2 g/e 3
5 KriegerDougherty  g/m
lr llnf 1 /
/m
equation (KD model)
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 investiga-
tions 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 pa-
per. In addition, theoretical models are developed for thermal con-
ductivity 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 as-
sisted 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 vol-
ume concentration was then prepared by dispersing a specied
amount of Al2O3 nanoparticles in water by using a ultrasonic vibra-
tor (Toshiba, India) generating ultrasonic pulses of 100 W at
36 3 kHz. To get a uniform dispersion and stable suspension
Fig. 1. XRD pattern of Al2O3 particles.
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
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 inu-
ence 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 isoelec-
tric point of 9.2 for alumina nanoparticles [16]. This ensures the
nanoparticles are well dispersed and the nanouid is stable be-
cause 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 measure-
ments. 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 indepen-
dently with different samples due to the limitations in synthesiz-
ing the nanoparticles in bulk quantities.
The thermal conductivity of Al2O3/water nanouid was mea-
sured 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 bat-
tery, a 16-bit microcontroller/AD converter, and power control cir-
cuitry. 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-
 M. Chandrasekar et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 210216
pic, and at uniform initial temperature, T0. Although these assump-
tions are not true in the strict sense, they are adequate for accurate
thermal properties measurements. The sensor needle used was KS-
1 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 mea-
surements. 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
qln t2  ln t 1
k 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] sug-
gest 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 com-
putation 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 indi-
vidual temperature values. In addition, forty data points are used
to determine the value of k rather than just two. The other advan-
tage 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, glyc-
erin 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 nano-
uid was turned upside down on the top of the needle so that any
Fig. 3. KD2 Pro thermal properties analyzer. 1 Vial, 2 sensor, 3 septum, 4
cable, 5 microcontroller.
213
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 labora-
tories 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 mea-
sured 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 vis-
cometer 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 mea-
sured 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 li-
quidsolid 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
knf ks 2k 2/Dk
kr 2
k ks 2k  /Dk
where Dk = ks  kA great number of extensions to the Maxwell
equation have been carried out ever since Maxwells initial investi-
gation. 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. 4. Cone and plate assembly. 1 Cone, 2 plate.
214 M. Chandrasekar et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 210216

tivity of liquids with accuracy usually within 15% and the equation
is
 q 13
k 3:59  109 C p q
M which considers the mean free path is used to predict the effective
In our previous work [28], we have extended this to predict the
thermal conductivity of nanouids as
 13
qnf
knf 3:59  109 C p;nf qnf
M nf
By assuming that the nanoparticles are well dispersed within the
base uid, the thermo-physical properties of the particle uid mix-
ture 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  MM /Ms
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
     thermally driven convection currents in the sample are avoided
knf C p;nf a qnf b M c
k Cp q M nf
where a, b and c are the exponents to be determined from experi-
ments. The relevant thermo-physical properties of water and alu-
mina 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
1 Fig. 5 shows the thermal conductivity of Al2O3/water nanouids
lr 1 a
kn
where the constants a and n depend on material characteristics
while the mean free path (k) is dened given as
2 1  /
k d
3 /
Substituting Eq. (10) in Eq. (9) and for a given particle size,
 n
/ ment and volume concentration can be attributed to large regions
lr 1 b
1/
The above model was used by Noni et al. [30] to predict the rheolog-
ical 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 coef-
cients 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 electromag-
netic aspects, could vary depending on interaction between phases,
composition and properties of the liquid phase and also additives.
The other contribution, related with mechanicalgeometrical as-
pects of the particles like the specic surface area, the density and
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 high-
3 er than one. Hence in the present investigation, this model (Eq. (11))
viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouids.
4. Results and discussion
4
The powder XRD was carried out with a Rigaku X-ray diffrac-
tometer by Cu-ka1 radiation in the range of 2080. All the reec-
tions on the XRD pattern (Fig. 1) can be indexed to the tetragonal
phase of Al2O3 using Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Stan-
dards (JCPDS). The average grain size is calculated to be 43 nm
using the Sherrer formula. The microstructure of the powder sam-
5 ple was characterized by Jeol JSM 6360 SEM which shows that the
6 particles are highly agglomerated under atmospheric condition,
which is of the order of micrometers as seen in the SEM photo-
7
graph 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,
which in turn avoids any disturbances in the sample during mea-
8
surements. The thermal conductivity for each volume concentra-
tion 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 tempera-
ture 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 re-
ported 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.
9
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 ther-
mal conductivity enhancements of current Al2O3/water nanouids
are 1.64%, 3.28%, 3.43%, 7.52% and 9.7%, correlated to volume con-
10
centrations of 0.33%, 0.75%, 1%, 2% and 3%. The current experimen-
tal data agree well with the measured data of Das et al. [22]. A
linear relationship between the thermal conductivity enhance-
11

Table 2
Thermo-physical properties of water and alumina nanoparticles at 300 K.

Property Water Al2O3

Density, kg/m3 997 3880
Specic heat, J/kg K 4170 729
Molecular weight, kg/kmole 18 101 Fig. 5. Thermal conductivity ratio of Al2O3/water nanouid as a function of volume
concentration.
 M. Chandrasekar et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 210216
Fig. 6. Comparison between the experimental and predicted values of thermal
conductivity ratio.
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 var-
ious 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 viscos-
ity of Al2O3/water nanouids as a function of particle volume con-
centration. The current viscosity data (at room temperature)
show an excellent agreement with the measurement of Nguyen
Fig. 7. Shear stress as a function of shear rate.
215
Fig. 8. Relative viscosity of Al2O3/water nanouid as a function of volume
concentration.
et al. [12] though they used an entirely different measurement
technique. A maximum increase in viscosity of Al2O3/water nano-
uids observed is 2.36 times that of water at 5% volume concen-
tration. 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 in-
crease 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 predic-
tions and experimental data for viscosity of Al2O3/water nano-
uid. 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 reason-
able as the electromagnetic aspects would become important due
to increased surface area of the nanoparticles and the complexi-
ties 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. 9. Comparison between the experimental and predicted values of relative
viscosity.
216 M. Chandrasekar et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 34 (2010) 210216
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 con-
centrations from 0.33% to 5% were prepared using a two step meth-
od 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 conductivi-
ties 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 distur-
bance 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 vis-
cosity models can be used for the prediction of thermal conductiv-
ity 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.
References
[1] S.U.S. Choi, Developments and applications of non-Newtonian ows, ASME
FED 66 (1995) 99105.
[2] J.A. Eastman, S.U.S. Choi, S. Li, W. Yu, L.J. Thompson, Anomalously increased
effective thermal conductivities of ethylene glycol based nanouids containing
copper nanoparticles, Appl. Phys. Lett. 78 (2001) 718720.
[3] S.U.S. Choi, Z.G. Zhang, W. Yu, F.E. Lockwood, E.A. Grulke, Anomalous thermal
conductivity enhancement in nanotube suspensions, Appl. Phys. Lett. 79
(2001) 22522254.
[4] S.M.S. Murshed, K.C. Leong, C. Yang, Thermophysical and electrokinetic
properties of nanouids a critical review, Appl. Therm. Eng. 28 (2008)
21092125.
[5] C. Choi, H.S. Yoo, J.M. Oh, Preparation and heat transfer properties of
nanoparticle-in-transformer oil dispersions as advanced energy-efcient
coolants, Curr. Appl. Phys. 8 (2008) 710712.
[6] W. Duangthongsuk, S. Wongwises, Measurement of temperature-dependent
thermal conductivity and viscosity of TiO2water nanouids, Exp. Therm. Fluid
Sci. 33 (2009) 706714.
[7] X.F. Li, D.S. Zhu, X.J. Wang, N. Wang, J.W. Gao, H. Li, Thermal conductivity
enhancement dependent pH and chemical surfactant for CuH2O nanouids,
Thermochim. Acta 469 (2008) 98103.
[8] J.H. Lee, K.S. Hwang, S.P. Jang, B.H. Lee, J.H. Kim, S.U.S. Choi, C.J. Choi, Effective
viscosities and thermal conductivities of aqueous nanouids containing low
volume concentrations of Al2O3 nanoparticles, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 51
(2008) 26512656.
[9] S.U.S. Choi, Nanouids: from vision to reality through research, J. Heat Transfer
131 (2009) 033106-1033106-9.
[10] H.U. Kang, S.H. Kim, J.M. Oh, Estimation of thermal conductivity of nanouid
using experimental effective particle volume, Exp. Heat Transfer 19 (2006)
181191.
[11] R. Prasher, D. Song, J. Wang, P.E. Phelan, Measurements of nanouid viscosity
and its implications for thermal applications, Appl. Phys. Lett. 89 (2006)
133108-1133108-3.
[12] C.T. Nguyen, F. Desgranges, N. Galanis, G. Roy, T. Mare, S. Boucher, H.A. Mintsa,
Viscosity data for Al2O3/water nanouidhysteresis: is heat transfer
enhancement using nanouids reliable?, Int J. Therm. Sci. 47 (2008) 103111.
[13] S.M.S. Murshed, K.C. Leong, C. Yang, Investigations of thermal conductivity and
viscosity of nanouids, Int. J. Therm. Sci. 47 (5) (2008) 560568.
[14] H. Masuda, A. Ebata, K. Teramae, N. Hishinuma, Alteration of thermal
conductivity and viscosity of liquid by dispersing ultra-ne particles
(dispersion of Al2O3, SiO2 and TiO2 ultra-ne particles), Netsu Bussei (Japan)
7 (1993) 227233.
[15] X. Wang, X. Xu, S.U.S. Choi, Thermal conductivity of nanoparticlesuid
mixture, J. Thermophys. Heat Transfer 13 (4) (1999) 474480.
[16] H. Xie, L. Chen, Q. Wu, Measurements of the viscosity of suspensions
(nanouids) containing nanosized Al2O3 particles, High Temp.-High Press. 37
(2008) 127135.
[17] P.K. Namburu, D.P. Kulkarni, D. Misra, D.K. Das, Viscosity of copper oxide
nanoparticles dispersed in ethylene glycol and water mixture, Exp. Therm.
Fluid Sci. 323 (2007) 97402.
[18] J. Avsec, M. Oblak, The calculation of thermal conductivity, viscosity and
thermodynamic properties for nanouids on the basis of statistical
nanomechanics, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer 50 (2007) 43314341.
[19] I.M. Krieger, T.J. Dougherty, A mechanism for non-Newtonian ow in
suspensions of rigid spheres, Trans. Soc. Rheol. 3 (1959) 137152.
[20] H. Chen, Y. Ding, C. Tan, Rheological behaviour of nanouids, New J. Phys. 9
(2007) 367-1367-24.
[21] S.A. Putnam, D.G. Cahill, P.V. Braun, Z. Ge, R.G. Shimmin, Thermal conductivity
of nanoparticle suspensions, J. Appl. Phys. 99 (2006) 084308.
[22] S.K. Das, N. Putra, P. Thiesen, W. Roetzel, Temperature dependence of thermal
conductivity enhancement for nanouids, J. Heat Transfer 125 (2003) 567
574.
[23] ASTM D 5334-00. Standard Test Methods for Determination of Thermal
Conductivity of Soil and Soft Rock by Thermal Needle Probe Procedure. vol.
04.08, ASTM, 100 Barr-Harbor Dr., West Conshocken, PA 19428-2059, 2000.
[24] IEEE STD 442-1981. IEEE Guide for Thermal Resistivity Measurements, The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., 345 East 47 Street, New
York, NY 10017.
[25] J.C. Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, second ed., Clarendon
Press, Oxford, UK, 1881.
[26] R.C. Reid, J.M. Prausnitz, T.K. Sherwood, The Properties of Gases and Liquids,
McGraw Hill, New York, 1977.
[27] H.F. Weber, Wiedermanns Ann. Phys. Chem. 10 (1880) 103 (A.S. Foust, L.A.
Wenzel, C.W. Clump, L. Maus, L.B. Andersen, Principles of Unit Operations,
John Wiley & Sons, Singapore).
[28] M. Chandrasekar, S. Suresh, R. Srinivasan, A. Chandra Bose, New analytical
models to investigate thermal conductivity of nanouids, J. Nanosci.
Nanotechnol. 9 (2009) 533538.
[29] R.L. Fullman, Measurement of particle sizes in opaque bodies, J. Metals 5
(1953) 447452.
[30] A.D. Noni Jr., D.E. Garcia, D. Hotza, A modied model for the viscosity of
ceramic suspensions, Ceram. Int. 28 (2002) 731735.
[31] H.T. Zhu, C.Y. Zhang, S.Q. Liu, Y.M. Tang, Y.S. Yin, Effects of nanoparticle
clustering and alignment on thermal conductivities of Fe3O4 aqueous
nanouids, Appl. Phys. Lett. 89 (2006) 023123-1023123-3.