Estimation of thermophysical properties for accurate numerical simulation of nanofluid heat transfer applied to a loop heat pipe

Abstract

Nanofluids have consistently gained attention over the last decades due to their capability in improving the heat transfer efficiency of thermal devices. This improvement is related to the increase in the working fluid's thermal conductivity when adding solid nanoparticles, also presenting an undesirable influence on other transport properties, such as the increase of the fluid's density, viscosity, etc. To better assess the influence of a certain solid nanoparticle in a base fluid, the obtained data has been used to generate models applied to predict the nanofluids' properties. However, reliability in those models is still a concern as they can show different results for the same characteristics of solid nanoparticles and base fluid, which can generate unreliable data upon applying them in more complex and broad thermal models. A review related to the thermophysical properties of nanofluids is important to offer the basis of analysis for accurate numerical simulation of thermal systems where nanofluids are applied.