The difference in the thermal conductivity of nanofluids measured by different methods and its rationalization

• Aparna Zagabathuni,
• Sudipto Ghosh and
• Shyamal Kumar Pabi

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2016, 7, 2037–2044, doi:10.3762/bjnano.7.194

• notable enhancement in thermal conductivity, when measured by the transient hot-wire method. In contrast, when the conductivity of the same nanofluid is measured by the laser flash method, the enhancement reported is about one order of magnitude lower. This difference has been quantitatively resolved for

• -mediated heat transfer model; laser flash method; nanofluids; thermal conductivity; transient hot-wire method; Introduction In 1995, Choi et al. [1] dispersed copper nanoparticles in water, and termed the suspension as nanofluid. They observed a large increase in the thermal conductivity of this nanofluid

• compared to water when measured by the transient hot-wire method (THWM). Subsequently, the thermal conductivity of nanofluids has been extensively investigated by THWM with the prospect to use them for enhanced heat-transfer applications [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. However, the cause of this enhanced thermal