Characterization of Temperature Dependence of Interfacial Tension and Viscosity of Nanofluid

Abstract

Investigations on temperature dependence of surface tension, interfacial tension and viscosity a nanofluid are reported in this paper. Experimental results show that nanofluid having TiO2 nanoparticles (15 nm) in deionized water exhibit substantially smaller surface tension and oil-based interfacial tension than those of the base fluid (i.e. deionized water). These surface and interfacial tensions of this nanofluid were found to decrease almost linearly with increasing temperature. The Brownian motion of nanoparticles in base fluid was identified as a possible mechanism for reduced surface and interfacial tensions of nanofluid. The measured effective viscosity of nanofluid was found to be insignificantly higher than that of base fluid and it also decreases with increasing fluid temperature.