The effects of particle shape on the effective thermal conductivity enhancement of nanofluids

나노유체 입자상 모양의 유효 열전도도에의 영향

Nanofluids have been studied as possible alternatives for heat transfer fluids to improve the efficiency of heat exchangers. There are deviations of measured effective thermal conductivities between research-groups, and the mechanisms of the effective thermal conductivity enhancement of nanofluids are not confirmed yet. In this study, the effects of particle shape on the effective thermal conductivity enhancement are discussed and presented as a possible explanation of the deviations. The particle motion effect is found to be negligible for nanofluids of high aspect ratio cylindrical particles, which is believed to be important for nanofluids of spherical particles, while the percolation network formation and contact resistance play dominant roles in determining the effective thermal conductivity.