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A critical analysis of clustering phenomenon in Al2O3 nanofluids

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Abstract

In the present work, an investigation on the relationship between clustering phenomenon and thermal conductivity of nanofluids is presented. Particularly, an experimental campaign was carried out to correlate mean dimension of cluster, ranging from 168 to 20,933 nm, to nanofluid’s thermal behavior. A further objective of this study was to evaluate how the stability of nanofluid can affect thermal conductivity measurements, carried out by means of hot-wire technique. Experimental results showed that thermal conductivity, measured at constant volume concentration of nanoparticles as a function of cluster dimension, first decreases and then augments, as it was under a dual effect: negative in case of small clusters and positive with big clusters within nanofluid. Actually, further measurements of zeta potential and backscattered light demonstrated that clustering reduces nanofluid’s thermal conductivity, while its increment can be related to sedimentation of clusterized particles, which produces convective motion around the hot wire, generating overestimated measurements.

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Abbreviations

A :

Surface [m2]

d :

Average diameter of nanoparticles [m]

d cl :

Average diameter of clusters [m]

h :

Height of cuvette used to perform backscattered light spot analysis [m]

T :

Temperature [T]

X V :

Volume fraction of suspension

X DW :

Volume fraction of deionized water

λ :

Thermal conductivity of nanofluid [W m−1 K−1]

λ 0 :

Thermal conductivity of base fluid [W m−1 K−1]

zP :

Zeta potential [V]

k B :

Boltzmann constant [J K−1]

BF:

Base fluid

NP:

Nanoparticle

NF:

Nanofluid

BS:

Backscattered light spot

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering for Innovation, University of Salento, SP Per Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    Fabrizio Iacobazzi, Marco Milanese, Gianpiero Colangelo & Arturo de Risi

Authors
  1. Fabrizio Iacobazzi
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  2. Marco Milanese
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  3. Gianpiero Colangelo
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  4. Arturo de Risi
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Correspondence to Gianpiero Colangelo.

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Iacobazzi, F., Milanese, M., Colangelo, G. et al. A critical analysis of clustering phenomenon in Al2O3 nanofluids. J Therm Anal Calorim 135, 371–377 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7099-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-018-7099-9

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