Effects of Particle Shape and Fluid Temperature on Heat-Transfer Characteristics of Nanofluids

Molecular dynamics simulation has shown that the heat transfer during the collision of a cylindrical nanoparticle with a heat source under most favorable condition can be much higher than that for a spherical nanoparticle of identical volume. This can potentially result in higher enhancement in the thermal conductivity of a nanofluid containing elongated particles compared to the one containing spherical nanoparticle, as exhibited by the experimental data in the literature. Further, the theoretical study predicts an increase in the enhancement in thermal conductivity with temperature of the base fluid, which is supported by the present experimental data for water-based Cu9Al4-nanofluids.