Effect of sonication time on enhancement of effective thermal conductivity of nano TiO₂–water, ethylene glycol, and paraffin oil nanofluids and models comparisons

This paper presents experimental and theoretical determination of the effective thermal conductivity of various base fluids and nano TiO2 composition. Ultrasonically assisted sol–gel method was used for synthesising anatase TiO2 nanoparticles and dispersing them into base fluids using sonication for the synthesis of nanofluids. It is observed that thermal conductivity enhancement is significantly higher than that of base fluid. The thermal conductivity shows an increment with the addition of nanoparticles and confirms a 22% enhancement achievable in base fluids. The effect of base fluids is a complex idea and difficult to understand; lower base fluid viscosities were supposed to contribute higher in enhancement of thermal conductivity, but another important factor; i.e. fluid nanoparticles surface interaction, nanoparticles crystal type also contributes in enhancement. In the further study, as the sonication time increases; an improvement in the thermal conductivity of nanofluids is also observed. Except water-based nanofluids, all others show reasonably good agreement with the data predicted by Bruggeman model and the prediction is in the range of 5%. This study is important since it covers base fluids with a wide range of thermal conductivity and viscosity.