A review on measurement techniques of apparent thermal conductivity of nanofluids

Abstract

Thermal conductivity of nanofluids has been extensively studied for a number of years because it is a very first evaluation of the heat transfer performance of nanofluids. However, not the single theoretical model predicts thermal conductivity of nanofluids accurately. Hence, different measurement techniques have been used to measure thermal conductivity of nanofluids. This paper focuses on different measurement techniques of thermal conductivity of nanofluids. The working principle, limitation and advantages of different measurement techniques have been discussed. The measurement techniques discussed in this paper included transient hot wire, transient plane source, 3-omega technique, steady-state parallel method, thermal comparator and laser flash method. Eventually, some suggestions have been made for improving the reliability of the measurement of thermal conductivity.