The paper presents the results of systematic measurements of the thermal conductivity coefficient of nanofluids at room temperature. In total, more than fifty various nanofluids based on water, ethylene glycol, and engine oil containing particles of SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, ZrO2, CuO, and diamond were studied. The nanoparticles volume concentration ranged from 0.25 to 8% and the particles size ranged from 10 to 150 nm. It is shown that the thermal conductivity of nanofluids is not described by the classical theories (Maxwell's and so forth). The nanofluid thermal conductivity coefficient is a complicated function not only of the particle concentration, but also the particles size, their material, and type of base fluid. Measured thermal conductivity coefficients almost always exceed the values calculated by the Maxwell's formula, though nanofluids with sufficiently small particles may have thermal conductivity coefficients even lower than those predicted by the Maxwell theory. However, in all cases, the nanofluid thermal conductivity coefficient enhances with increasing particle size. It is convincingly shown that there is no direct correlation between the thermal conductivity of the nanoparticle material and the thermal conductivity of nanofluid containing these particles. The base liquid also significantly influences the effective thermal conductivity of the nanofluid. It has been confirmed that the lower the thermal conductivity of the base fluid, the higher the relative thermal conductivity coefficient of the nanofluid.
Transport properties of nanofluids are extensively studied last decade. This has been motivated by the use of nanosized systems in various applications. The viscosity of nanofluids is of great significance as the application of nanofluids is always associated with their flow. However, despite the fairly large amount of available experimental information, there is a lack of systematic data on this issue and experimental results are often contradictory. The purpose of this review is to identify the typical parameters determining the viscosity of nanofluids. The dependence of the nanofluid viscosity on the particles concentration, their size and temperature is analyzed. It is explained why the viscosity of nanofluid does not described by the classical theories. It was shown that size of nanoparticles is the key characteristics of nanofluids. In addition the nanofluid is more structural liquid than the base one.
The numerical investigation of the flow regimes in the T-shaped microchannels with different width-to-height aspect ratios of mixing channel was carried out. In the first case, the mixing channel width was varied from 200 m to 1000 m while its height was constant; in the second case, the mixing channel height was varied from 100 m to 2000 m, while its width was constant. The Reynolds number was varied from 5 to 700. The dependences of fluids mixing efficiency and the pressure drop on the Reynolds number at different width-to-height aspect ratios of mixing channel were numerically established. The correlations to determine the critical Reynolds number, as well as the friction factor at different widths and heights of the mixing channel, were proposed. The mixing efficiency, reduced to the pressure drop and the volume unit was analyzed for the first time. The optimal range of parameters in terms of the working efficiency of the micromixer was determined.
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