Nanofluids as Heat Transfer Media

Nanofluids have attracted the attention of the scientific community during last twenty years and the number of papers on nanofluids has increased significantly as a result. The increased thermal conductivity of the fluid due to the addition of nanoparticles is a basic feature that has raised intensive research on nanofluids. Considering a permanent urge in the industry to improve efficiency of production processes, including the cooling streams of processes, the increased thermal conductivity of cooling fluids opens the possibility of achieving that goal. This paper provides an overview of nanofluid preparation methods and a description of parameters that affect the thermal conductivity of nanofluids. Also, the overviews of few models that describe the thermal conductivity of nanofluids as well as of possible mechanisms that contribute to the increase in thermal conductivity of nanofluids are given.