Experimental investigation on the viscosity, electrical conductivity and ph of sio2-ethylene glycol nanofluids

Abstract

Papers presented to the 11th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 20-23 July 2015.Nanofluids are new heat transfer fluid aimed at mitigating the poor heat removal efficiency of the conventional heat transfer fluids. Previous reports showed that nanofluids prepared from conventional heat transfer fluids have higher thermal conductivity compared to the constituent base fluids such as water or ethylene glycol. However not much have been done in other areas especially on the viscosity, electrical conductivity and pH. In this paper, experimental investigations were carried out on SiO2 nanoparticles dispersed in ethylene glycol at two different energy densities using ultrasound assist mechanism. The SiO2 nanoparticles used have an average particle size (APS) 13.4±5.6 nm. The combined effect of temperature, volume fraction and energy density on the viscosity, electrical conductivity and pH of the nanofluids were investigated. The temperature range investigated was between 20-70oC, volume fraction between 0-5%, and energy density of 1.5105 kJ/m3 and 3.2105 kJ/m3. The results showed temperature and volume fraction have significant influence on the viscosity, electrical conductivity and pH of the nanofluids. However, the energy density shows no significance on the viscosity of the nanofluids which was dependent on the level of dispersion of the suspension.