Thermo – Physical Characterization of Paraffin based Fe3O4 Nanofluids

Abstract

In this study, the thermal conductivity and viscosity of Fe3O4 nanoparticles in paraffin were investigated up to a volume fraction range of 0.01 - 0.1 of nanoparticles. The nanofluid was prepared by dispersing Fe3O4 nanoparticles in paraffin by using ultrasonic equipment. The mean diameter of Fe3O4 nanoparticles was 25 nm. The thermal conductivity of nanofluids has been measured using the transient hot-wire method based KD2Pro. Viscosity of nanofluids also studied with TA instruments rheometer. The experimental results showed that the thermal conductivity increases with an increase of particle volume fraction, and the enhancement observed to be 20% over the base fluid for a paraffin nanofluid with 0.1 volume fraction of Fe3O4 nanoparticles at room temperature. Same effect on viscosity also, the increase in viscosity with the increase of particle volume fraction was much less than predicted by the Einstein model. From this research, it seems that the increase in the nanofluid viscosity is smaller than the enhancement in the thermal conductivity.