Calculation of the Thermal Conductivity Coefficient of Water and TiO2 Nanofluid with Different Models

Thermal conductivity is defined as the ability of a material to heat transfer. In other words, thermal conductivity is the natural tendency of material to energy dispersion when temperature equilibrium disturbed by the imposition of a temperature gradient. Therefore, it plays a significant role in the issues of heat transfer. Due to the various applications of nanoscale materials in heat transfer and the importance of determining the thermal conductivity of nanofluids, this study, investigates eleven models for predicting the thermal conductivity of nanofluids (includes water and TiO2 nanoparticles) and comparing the results of calculations with the experimental results in the articles. Based on this study, it was found that the effective thermal conductivity ratio (thermal conductivity of the mixture of basic fluid and distributed nanoparticle) to the basic fluid conductivity (keff/kf) for variable Volumetric percentages ranging from 0.01 to 0.03 varies between 1.01 and 1.1. In the other words, addition of nanoparticles in the range of 1 to 3 Volume percentage is able to promote the keff/kf to 1.1 (10%). Therefore, thermal conductivity of the mixture of basic fluid and distributed nanoparticle increases up to 10% compared with basic fluid. Also, increasing the diameter of the nanoparticles reduces the thermal conductivity improvement.