Abstract
We perform a numerical study to determine the time of onset of natural convection in a transient hot wire (THW) device for measuring the thermal conductivity of nanofluids. The samples used in this simulation are water-based Al2O3 nanofluids with volume fractions of 1%, 4%, and 10%, and the properties are calculated by theoretical models and experimental correlations. The THW apparatus using coated wire is modeled by the control-volume-based finite difference method, and the start of natural convection is determined by observing the temperature rise of the wire under a gravity field. The onset time is 11.5 s for water and 41.6 s for water-based Al2O3 nanofluids predicted by Maxwell thermal conductivity model with a 10% volume fraction. We confirm that the onset time of natural convection of nanofluids in the cylinder increases with the nanoparticle volume fraction. We suggest a correlation for predicting the onset time on the basis of the numerical results. Finally, it is shown that the measurement error due to natural convection is negligible if the measurement using the transient hot wire method is completed before the onset of natural convection in the base fluid.
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