Novel multivariate correlation for thermal conductivity of SiC-MgO/ethylene glycol nanofluid based on an experimental study

Abstract

Hybrid nanofluids are introduced as a novel generation of homogeneous mixtures that are produced by dispersing dissimilar types of solid particles in a common heat transfer fluid to improve thermophysical properties. The present investigation is focused on the thermal conductivity of SiC-MgO/EG, empirically. An equal volume of silicon carbide (SiC) and magnesium oxide (MgO) nanoparticles containing 20, 55, and 90 nm particles’ diameters were dispersed into the pure EG to prepare hybrid nanofluids. It was found experimentally that both volume fraction and temperature significantly affect thermal conductivity. On the contrary, thermal conductivity diminishes with increasing nanoparticle size. Additionally, it was determined how sensitive the thermal conductivity was to alterations in important factors like temperature, volume fraction, and particle diameter. A novel correlation was recommended to anticipate the thermal conductivity of the hybrid nanofluid according to the empirical findings and the MANOVA analysis. The R-squared value of the thermal conductivity correlation was equal to 0.97. The agreement between the empirical data of SiC-MgO/EG hybrid nanofluid and the recommended correlation outputs indicates that this correlation has an appropriate precision.