Analysis of Thermal Conductivity and Convective Heat Transfer in Nanotube Suspensions

Nanofluids, which are mixtures of nanosize solids and liquids, show considerable promise as an efficient heat transfer medium. Our preliminary experimental studies have shown improved thermal conductivity in nanotube-in-oil suspensions. The experimental data were much higher than predicted values from the Hamilton-Crosser correlation. The experimental results were used to theoretically analyze the convective heat transfer in nanotube-in-oil suspensions. The theoretical results show that the convective heat transfer of nanotube-in-oil suspensions can be increased 30% at very low nanotube concentration (0.6 vol%).