Convective heat transfer characteristics of nanofluids

Convective heat transfer rate of traditional fluids are very lower than solid particles. The use of additives is a technique applied to enhance the heat transfer performance of base fluids. Suspension of millimeter or micrometer sized solid particles conduct more heat than the base liquids. The major problem with the large particles is rapid settling in fluids, abrasion and clogging. The fluids with nano-sized solid particles suspended in them are called nanofluids. It can overcome the above mentioned issues. The suspended metallic or nonmetallic nanoparticles change the transport properties and heat transfer characteristics of the base fluid. Nanofluids are expected to exhibit superior heat transfer properties compared with conventional heat transfer fluids. Furthermore, nanofluids are expected to be ideally suited in practical applications as their use incurs little or no penalty in pressure drop because the nanoparticles are ultrafine, therefore, appearing to behave more like a single- phase fluid than solid-liquid mixture. Mixing nanoparticlesin a conventional fluid has a dramatic effect on the fluid thermo physical properties. The purpose of this article is to summarize the published subjects to the forced convective heat transfer of the nanofluids.