Thermal properties and rheological behavior of water based Al

2
O
3
nanouid as a heat transfer uid
M. Ghanbarpour

, E. Bitaraf Haghigi, R. Khodabandeh

Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Department of Energy Technology, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 24 September 2013
Received in revised form 28 November 2013
Accepted 14 December 2013
Available online 22 December 2013
Keywords:
Nanouid
Al
2
O
3
nanoparticle
Thermal conductivity
Viscosity
Heat transfer
a b s t r a c t
An experimental investigation and theoretical study of thermal conductivity and viscosity of Al
2
O
3
/water
nanouids are presented in this article. Various suspensions containing Al
2
O
3
nanoparticles were tested
in concentration ranging from 3% to 50% in mass and temperature ranging from 293 K to 323 K. The
results reveal that both the thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanouids increase with temperature
and particle concentration accordingly while the increase in viscosity is much higher than the increase in
thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity and viscosity enhancement are in the range of 1.187%
and 18.1300%, respectively. Moreover, the results indicate that the thermal conductivity increases non-
linearly with concentration, but, linearly with the increase in temperature. In addition, the experimental
results are compared with some existing correlations from literature and some modications are sug-
gested. Finally, the average heat transfer coefcient at different basis of comparisons including equal
Reynolds number, uid velocity and pumping power is studied based on the experimental thermal con-
ductivity and viscosity in fully developed laminar and turbulent ow regimes. It is found that equal Rey-
nolds number as a basis of comparison is highly misleading and equal pumping power can be used to
study the advantage of using nanouid instead of the base uid.
2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Conventional heat transfer uids such as oil, water and ethylene
glycol which are widely used in many industrial applications
mainly including in transport, energy storage, air-conditioning,
chemical production and electronic cooling, have low thermal con-
ductivity. Many researches and activities are being carried out to
improve the thermal properties of these heat transfer uids. The
idea of dispersing solid nanoparticles with higher thermal conduc-
tivity to increase heat removal efciencies in cooling systems was
suggested to achieve higher thermal performance. In the last dec-
ade, several articles have been published on thermal properties of
nanouids. Based on different methods and techniques of prepara-
tion, characterization and stabilization, the reported results are
inconsistent. Although, some of the experimental results show a
signicant relationship between nanouids thermal conductivity
and preparation techniques, surfactants, mechanical stirring and
pH, it is clear that base uid, particle size and volume fraction of
nanoparticles have substantial effect on thermal conductivity of
nanouids. Metal oxide nanoparticles are interesting and popular
choices to be used in nanouid suspensions because of their high
values of thermal conductivity and easier production method than
metallic nanoparticles because of lower sensitivity of lighter oxide
particle than dense particles such as metals to the effects of
agglomeration. In this paper a water-based nanouid containing
aluminum oxide in various concentrations and temperatures has
been studied. Numerous studies on thermophysical properties of
Al
2
O
3
nanouids can be found in the literature and some selected
results are shown in Table 1.
As can be seen, the thermal conductivity of nanouid increases
in all cases but at different rates. Based on concentration and tem-
perature effects on Brownian motion of the particles and their
agglomerations, different trends in the thermal conductivity and
viscosity increment are expected. According to the selected tem-
perature and concentration ranges, some analytical correlations
are evaluated to nd their accuracy to predict thermal conductivity
and viscosity of nanouids. Beside thermal conductivity, it is very
important to consider rheological properties of the nanouids such
as viscosity in engineering applications, which strongly inuences
pressure drop and consequently the pumping power of the nano-
uids. Despite the important role of viscosity, only a few studies
have been reported in which the enhancement of thermal conduc-
tivity and increment of viscosity is discussed. Most of experimental
studies on rheological properties of nanouids revealed that the
viscosity of nanouid is higher than of the base uid and increases
0894-1777/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermusci.2013.12.013

Corresponding author. Tel.: +46 8 7907413.

E-mail address: morteza.ghanbarpour@energy.kth.se (M. Ghanbarpour).
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 53 (2014) 227235
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
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j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ et f s
with concentration [9,10]. In this study, thermal conductivity and
viscosity of waterAl
2
O
3
nanouid in mass concentration of
350% and in temperature ranging of 293323 K were studied. In
addition, experimental results of thermal conductivity and viscos-
ity were compared with a number of correlations from the
literature.
2. Experimental procedures and apparatus
2.1. Material
The Al
2
O
3
water nanouid with Silane as the surface modi-
er, manufactured by the two-step method, is produced by ItN
Nanovation AG (Germany) and the nanouid was adjusted to
pH 9.1. The tested samples at different concentrations were di-
luted from the original samples with the concentration of
50 wt.% by adding distilled water. Transmission electron micros-
copy (TEM) analysis of the nanoparticles size and morphology
were performed and presented in Fig. 1. Also, for determination
of hydrodynamic size of Al
2
O
3
particles, DLS analysis was per-
formed, and the result is shown in Fig. 2. Al
2
O
3
average particle
size is about 75 nm and the shapes of primary particles can be
assumed as spherical. Also, the curve broadening shows that
the hydrodynamic particle size distribution is between 100 nm
and 400 nm but most of the particles are in the range of
200 nm, an average DLS particle size is reported as 235 nm. In
order to obtain homogeneous mixtures the nanouids samples
were put into a sonication bath for 15 min before measurements,
for avoiding or at least limiting the accumulation and settling of
the nanoparticles.
2.2. Thermal conductivity and viscosity measurement
The Transient Plane Source (TPS) method is used for measuring
the thermal conductivity of nanouids. The sensor element is made
of a 10 lm thickness nickel foil which is electrically conducting
and in the shape of a double spiral. The TPS probe sensor acts both
as a heat source for increasing the temperature of the sample and
as a resistance thermometer for recording the time dependent
temperature increase of the sensor. The thermal characteristics
are calculated from the recording of the average temperature
change which is caused by the change in TPS sensor resistance ver-
sus time response in the sensor and evaluated by the manufac-
turers software Hot Disk Thermal Constants Analyzer. The
dynamic viscosity is measured with a rotating coaxial cylinder
viscometer. The instrument can be used for viscosities ranging
from 0.001 N S/m
2
to 0.6 N S/m
2
and for both Newtonian and
non-Newtonian liquids. In this work the thermal conductivities
and the viscosities at 293 K, 303 K, 313 K, and 323 K are investi-
gated. The instruments were tested several times with water and
the deviations from reference values were found to be within
2% and 4% for the thermal conductivity and viscosity, respec-
tively. Details of experiment instruments are listed in Table 2.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Thermal conductivity of waterAl
2
O
3
nanouid
Thermal conductivity of Al
2
O
3
nanouids was measured in
mass fraction and temperatures ranges of 350% and 293323 K,
Nomenclature
A constant
c
p
specic heat (J/kg K)
d diameter (nm)
D tube diameter
h convective heat transfer coefcient (W/m
2
K)
k thermal conductivity (W/m K)
L tube length
Nu Nusselt number
P pressure (Pa)
Pr Prandtl number
Re Reynolds number
T temperature (K)
U
max
maximum particle packing fraction
U
agg
effective volume fraction of aggregates
V velocity
w mass concentration of nanouids, wt.%
Greek symbols
l dynamic viscosity (Pa s)
/ volume fraction (%)
q density (kg/m
3
)
Subscripts
ave average
b base uid
f uid
nf nanouid
p particle
Superscript
+ dimensionless quantity
+ dimensionless length
Table 1
Literature review on thermal conductivity enhancement of Al
2
O
3
/water nanouid.
Author Base uid Particle size Concentration Enhancement (%)
Wang et al. [1] Water 28 nm 5 vol.% 14
Das et al. [2] Water 38 nm 4 vol.% 8
Chon et al. [3] Water 13 nm 1 vol.% 15
Chon et al. [3] Water 50 nm 4 vol.% 30
Timofeeva et al. [4] Water 40 nm 5 vol.% 10
Chandrasekar et al. [5] Water 43 nm 3 vol.% 9.7
Teng et al. [6] Water 20 nm 2 wt.% 14.7
Beck et al. [7] Water 12 nm 4 vol.% 23
Tavman et al. [8] Water 30 nm 2 vol.% 33
228 M. Ghanbarpour et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 53 (2014) 227235
respectively. The volume fraction can be estimated by the follow-
ing correlation:
1 w
w

q
p
q
f
=
1 /
/
(1)
To check the validity and repeatability the instruments thermal
conductivity of distilled water was measured and compared with
the reference values from International Association for the Proper-
ties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) [11]. As shown in Fig. 3, it was
found that the standard deviation and the accuracy of measure-
ment for these measurements are better than 1.5% and 2%
respectively.
Figs. 4 and 5 depict the temperature dependence of the thermal
conductivity of the nanouids containing various mass fractions of
Al
2
O
3
nanoparticles and its enhancement, respectively. It is ob-
served that the thermal conductivity increases with increase in
mass fraction and temperature. Furthermore, a notable nding
from Fig. 4 is the linear slope of thermal conductivity changes with
temperature at different concentrations. Also, it is apparent from
Fig. 5 that the thermal conductivity enhancement of Al
2
O
3
water
nanouid at higher concentrations shows temperature-depen-
dency and has decreasing slope with temperature which may be
caused by more agglomeration or aggregation of the nanoparticles
at higher concentrations because of increasing the particles num-
bers and motions and consequently increasing the particles colli-
sions at higher concentrations and temperatures which increases
the possibility of agglomeration or aggregation of the
nanoparticles.
The results exhibit that the thermal conductivity of the nano-
uid is strongly dependent on the concentration of nanoparticles
as well as temperature. The maximum increment obtained for
50 wt.% at 293 K is 87% while the highest value of thermal conduc-
tivity is 1.18 W/m K at 323 K and for nanouid at 50 wt.%. More-
over, it is observed that the thermal conductivity increment is
not linear with increase in mass concentration at each tempera-
ture. For example, at 323 K, the thermal conductivity of nanouid
increases about 20% by increasing the mass concentration from
30 wt.% to 40 wt.% while the increment in thermal conductivity
is 26% for the case that the mass concentration increases from
40 wt.% to 50 wt.%.
Furthermore, to nd and analyze the difference between the
present experimental results and previous studies, a comparison
between the experimental thermal conductivity ratio of Al
2
O
3

water nanouid and results from Das et al. [2] and Yiamsawasd
et al. [12] studies at various temperatures and concentrations are
shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 1. TEM images of alumina nanoparticles.
Fig. 2. Particle size distribution measured by DLS.
Table 2
Experimental equipments details.
Test equipment Manufacturer Model Details
Viscosity Brookeld DV-II + Pro LV-1 Spindle, accuracy: 1% of full scale range, reproducibility 0.2%
Thermal conductivity Hot disk TPS 2500 5 double-spiral sensor, accuracy: 2% for thermal conductivity, reproducibility: 1%
Fig. 3. Thermal conductivity of distilled water.
M. Ghanbarpour et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 53 (2014) 227235 229
As can be seen, the experimental thermal conductivity ratio in-
creases with concentration for all three studies but with different
slopes. It is observed that at Das et al. [2] study the thermal con-
ductivity ratio increased with temperature increase while at pres-
ent and Yiamsawasd et al. [12] studies these ratios decreased with
temperature. Furthermore, it is found that the differences between
present experimental results and those of Yiamsawasd et al. [12] at
the same concentration and temperature are less than 3% while for
Das et al. [2] the higher deviations is obtained which may be
caused by different particle size. In Das et al. [2] study the particle
radius was 19.7 nm which is about three times smaller than that of
in Yiamsawasd et al. [12] and present studies.
3.2. Viscosity of waterAl
2
O
3
nanouid
As well as thermal conductivity, the viscosity of nanouid is an
important transport property which affects the thermal
performance of heat transfer devices. Figs. 7 and 8 show the values
of the viscosity and viscosity enhancement of the nanouids at dif-
ferent temperatures and concentrations, respectively. Results indi-
cate that the viscosity strongly depends on the mass fraction of
Al
2
O
3
and the temperature, increasing considerably with particle
mass concentration but decreasing with a temperature increase.
Moreover, results reveal that the viscosity enhancement is almost
constant along different temperatures at a xed concentration
meaning it is not temperature dependent. Also, it is obvious that
the increment in viscosity of nanouid is much higher than that
of the thermal conductivity. For example, for nanouid at 30 wt.%
the increment in viscosity is between 80% and 95% while the incre-
ment is between 35% and 40% for the thermal conductivity. Beside
the effect of adding nanoparticles to the base uid on viscosity of
the nanouid, it is very important to verify nanouids Newtonian
or non-Newtonian behavior by evaluating the shear stress versus
shear rate as a function of particle loading and temperature. The
shear stress versus shear rate for different mass concentrations
Fig. 4. Thermal conductivity of Al
2
O
3
water nanouids at different concentrations.
Fig. 5. Thermal conductivity enhancement of Al
2
O
3
water nanouids at different
concentrations.
Fig. 6. Thermal conductivity ratio for Al
2
O
3
nanouids at different studies.
Fig. 7. Viscosity of Al
2
O
3
water nanouids at different concentrations.
230 M. Ghanbarpour et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 53 (2014) 227235
and temperatures for Al
2
O
3
nanouidare are shown in Fig. 9. The
linear relationship between shear stress and shear rate indicates
that nanouid exhibits Newtonian behavior and the increment in
the slope of the lines indicates that the viscosity of the nanouid
increases with increase in mass concentration but decrease with
the temperature.
3.3. Prediction of experimental results with correlations
3.3.1. Thermal conductivity
During last decades, several correlations have been proposed to
predict thermal conductivity of nanouids. The rst correlation
was introduced by Maxwell [13] considering thermal conductivi-
ties of base uid and nanoparticle and also volume fractions of
nanoparticles were included, while the particles were considered
spherical. Fig. 10 shows the comparison of experimental results
at different temperatures and concentrations with Maxwell corre-
lation. It is observed that Maxwell equation is in good agreement
with the experimental results at lower mass fraction and underes-
timates the experimental results at higher concentrations. It can be
seen that at lower volume concentration than 20% the deviation is
less than 5% while it is between 5% and 10% for higher concentra-
tions with higher thermal conductivity.
Later, a modication which was done on Maxwell correlation by
considering more parameters affecting the thermal conductivity of
nanouids is studied. Although, there is no reliable correlation to
predict the thermal conductivity of all kinds of nanouids with dif-
ferent particle shapes and concentrations very well, semi-empirical
correlations are usually derived based on limited experimental re-
sults. The constants which are used in these correlations can be
checked and modied by evaluating these semi-empirical correla-
tions with new experimental results at different working condi-
tions. A well-known correlation for thermal conductivity of
nanouid was proposed by Prasher et al. [14]. They modied Max-
well equation considering the effect of Brownian motion and intro-
ducing heat transfer coefcient based on the convection of the base
uid around the solid particles. The correlation is dened as below:
k
nf
=(1A Re
m
Pr
0:333
U)
[k
p
(12a) k
m
[ 2U[k
p
(1a) k
m
[
[k
p
(12a) 2k
m
[ U[k
p
(1a) k
m
[

k
f
(2)
where a = 2R
f
k
m
/d
p
, k
m
= k
f
[1 + (1/4)RePr] and the constants A and
m can be estimated from experimental results. In order to nd A
and m, in Prasher correlation, experimental results were used in
concentrations ranging between 3% and 50% in mass and tempera-
ture ranging between 293 K and 333 K. The parameters A and m
were calculated as 30,000 and 2.5, respectively, by least squares
regression analysis. Comparison of Prasher correlation predictions
with experimental results are shown in Fig. 11. Results reveal that
Prasher correlation with proposed values for constants A and m pre-
dicts the thermal conductivity of Al
2
O
3
/water nanouids well.
Finally, based on limited available experimental results a new
and simple correlation is suggested. This correlation is proposed
based on non-linear tting of data. According to the experimental
results, the thermal conductivity increased non-linearly with con-
centration increase at each temperature. So, a non-linear correla-
tion for prediction of the effective thermal conductivity is
proposed as below.
k
nf
k
f
= 1 A
1
U A
2
U
2
(3)
The values of constants A
1
and A
2
are calculated based on the
experimental results. The empirical correlation for thermal con-
ductivity of nanouid can be derived by non-linear regression.
Constants A
1
and A
2
were calculated as 3.5 and 2.5, respectively.
So, the empirical correlation is obtained as follow:
Fig. 8. Viscosity enhancement of Al
2
O
3
water nanouids at different
concentrations.
Fig. 9. Shear stress versus shear rate for different mass concentrations at T = 303 K (Left) and different temperatures for 20 wt.% (Right).
M. Ghanbarpour et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 53 (2014) 227235 231
k
nf
k
f
= 1 3:5U2:5U
2
(4)
Comparison of the predicted values (correlation 3) and the
experimental results are shown in Fig. 12.
According to Fig. 12, the experimental results deviations from
the proposed non-linear pattern are less than 5% which shows
the capability of the proposed empirical correlation to predict
the thermal conductivity of Al
2
O
3
water nanouid under the con-
dition of this study.
3.3.2. Viscosity
As mentioned before, viscosity of nanouid is another property
which is needed to be studied because of its signicant effect on
heat transfer and pressure drop. Einstein [15] correlation is the
most well-known correlation for viscosity of nanouid which pre-
dicts the effective viscosity of a nanouid according to the follow-
ing equation:
l
nf
l
f
= 1 2:5U (5)
where U is the volume fraction of nanoparticles. In this study
Batchelor [16], Krieger and Dougherty [17] and Corcione [18] corre-
lations have been used to predict the viscosity of the nanouids.
These correlations are listed in Table 3.
Fig. 13 presents the comparison of dynamic viscosity of nano-
uids with above correlations at T = 293 K and 313 K. The results
demonstrate that the viscosity of nanouid strongly depends on
solid particles concentration. It was found that the Einstein corre-
Fig. 10. Comparison of experimental thermal conductivity with Maxwell
correlation.
Fig. 11. Comparison of the experimental results with Prasher et al. model with A = 30,000 and m = 2.5, (a) T = 293 K, (b) 313 K.
Fig. 12. Comparison of experimental result with proposed non-linear correlation
for effective thermal conductivity (k
nf
/k
f
).
Table 3
Models for viscosity of nanouids.
Batchelor [16]
l
nf
l
f
= 1 2:5U 6:5U
2
Krieger and Dougherty [17] l
nf
l
f
= 1
Uagg
Umax

lUmax
Corcione [18]
l
nf
l
f
= 1 34:87
dp
df

0:3
U
1:03

1
232 M. Ghanbarpour et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 53 (2014) 227235
lation underestimates the viscosity of nanouids, specially at
higher concentrations.
Due to the fact that Batchelor correlation is an extended form of
the Einsteins correlation, it underpredicts the experimental results
as well but with lower error compared with Einstein correlation.
The differences between theoretical and experimental results in-
crease by increasing the mass concentration. Unlike Einstein and
Batchelor correlations, Corcione and Krieger and Dougherty corre-
lations predict the viscosity of Al
2
O
3
nanouid with higher accu-
racy and lower deviation. At both temperatures of 293 K and
313 K Krieger and Dougherty and Corcione correlations underesti-
mate the experimental results for concentrations below 30 wt.%
but overestimate the data for mass concentrations higher than
30 wt.%. The average deviation for concentrations below 30 wt.%
at 293 K, is 8.5% for Corcione and 7.4% for Krieger and Dougherty
correlations, respectively. At 313 K, Krieger and Dougherty correla-
tion predicts the experimental results with an average difference of
9.2%, while with increasing the concentration the difference de-
creases to 1.5%. The Corcione correlation shows good prediction
(1% error) at 30 wt.% but the deviation increases for higher concen-
trations than 30 wt.%. So, among above correlations, Krieger and
Dougherty correlation predicts viscosity of these nanouids within
10% error in all concentrations.
3.4. Heat transfer coefcient enhancement prediction
The heat transfer coefcient enhancement of nanouids com-
pared with the base uid for the hydrodynamically fully developed
ow can be predicted based on the thermo-physical properties of
nanouids utilizing Shah [19] and DittusBoelter [20] correlations
in laminar and turbulent ow regimes, respectively. Shah correla-
tion for laminar owis dened as:
Nu
ave
=
1:953L
+
1
3
L
+
_ 0:03
4:364 0:0722L
+1
L
+
> 0:03
(
(6)
where
L
+
=
(x
n
x
1
)=D
i
Re Pr
:
and DittusBoelter correlation for turbulent ow is dened as:
Nu
ave
= 0:023 Re
4=5
Pr
2=5
(7)
where Reynolds and Prandtl numbers are dened as:
Re = q
Vd
l
and
Pr = l
C
p
K
Based on the Shah and London correlation for laminar ow, the
average heat transfer coefcient in the thermally developing re-
gion can be related to the average velocity, V, density, q, thermal
conductivity, k, viscosity, l, and specic heat, C
p
, as follow:
Laminar ow: h
ave
- V
1=3
q
1=3
c
1=3
p
k
2=3
In thermally fully developed region the enhancement of heat
transfer coefcient of nanouids only depends on thermal conduc-
tivity enhancement while the Nusselt number is constant in this
region. Hence, it is expected that in simultaneously thermally
and hydrodynamically fully developed laminar ow the relative
heat transfer coefcient increases with thermal conductivity in-
crease. So, in this study we consider the thermally developing,
hydrodynamically developed laminar ow. For turbulent ow,
based on DittusBoelter correlation, the average heat transfer coef-
cient relation with the uid properties is as follow:
Turbulent ow: h
ave
- V
4=5
q
4=5
c
2=5
p
k
3=5
l
2=5
Therefore, the relative heat transfer coefcient in a circular tube
with constant wall heat ux at different bases of comparisons can
be expressed as shown in Table 4. The experimental thermal con-
ductivity and viscosity of the nanouids are used to calculate the
relative heat transfer coefcient while the specic heat and density
of nanouids are estimated by the following equations [21,22]:
q
nf
C
p;nf
= /q
p
C
p;p
(1 /)q
bf
C
p;bf
(8)
q
nf
= /q
p
(1 /)q
bf
(9)
To investigate the advantage of using nanouids compared with
their base uids in cooling applications, different bases of compar-
ison are used in the literature. Although it is common to evaluate
Fig. 13. Comparison of the experimental viscosity with theoretical correlations at T = 293 K (Left) and 313 K (Right).
Table 4
The relative heat transfer coefcient at different basis of comparisons.
Laminar ow Turbulent ow
V
bf
= V
nf h
relative
= q
1=3
r
c
1=3
p;r
k
2=3
r
h
relative
= q
4=5
r
c
2=5
p;r
k
3=5
r
l
2=5
r
P
bf
= P
nf h
relative
= l
1=6
r
q
1=3
r
c
1=3
p;r
k
2=3
r
h
relative
= q
32=55
r
c
2=5
p;r
k
3=5
r
l
26=55
r
Re
bf
= Re
nf h
relative
= l
1=3
r
c
1=3
p;r
k
2=3
r
h
relative
= c
2=5
p;r
k
3=5
r
l
2=5
r
M. Ghanbarpour et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 53 (2014) 227235 233
the heat transfer of the nanouid at equal Reynolds number, other
bases of comparison such as equal ow velocity and pumping
power can be used as well. Figs. 14 and 15 show the relative heat
transfer coefcient of the nanouid to that of the base uid in lam-
inar and turbulent ow regimes, respectively. As shown in Fig. 14,
in laminar ow regime, the relative heat transfer coefcient in-
creases with concentration increase in all bases of comparison. It
means that the heat transfer coefcient of the Al
2
O
3
nanouid is
higher than that of the base uid and the maximum values of rel-
ative heat transfer coefcient at each concentration is obtained at
equal Reynolds number. The relative heat transfer coefcient in-
creased up to 90% at equal Reynolds number at highest concentra-
tion (50 wt.%) while it increased up to 50% and 20% at equal ow
velocity and pumping power, respectively at the same
concentration.
The reason of higher increment at equal Reynolds number com-
pared with equal ow velocity and pumping power is the higher
ow velocity of the nanouid which should be used in calculation
to compensate the viscosity increment to make equality at this ba-
sis of comparison. In fact, higher ow velocity of the nanouid at
equal Reynolds number results in higher heat transfer coefcient.
Hence, this basis of comparison (same Reynolds number) may be
highly misleading. Fig. 15 shows the relative heat transfer coef-
cient in turbulent ow regime at two different inlet temperatures
of 293 K and 313 K.
As can be seen, the same as laminar ow regime the highest rel-
ative heat transfer coefcient occurs at equal Reynolds number.
But, at equal ow velocity the relative heat transfer coefcient is
almost constant while it is below one at equal pumping power
which means that the heat transfer coefcient of the nanouid is
less than that of the base uid at equal pumping power. Since
the relative heat transfer coefcient at equal pumping power is
proportional to 1/6 and 26/55 power of the viscosity in laminar
and turbulent ow regimes respectively and while it is propor-
tional to 2/3 and 3/5 power of the thermal conductivity, it is found
that the viscosity increment effect is much more dominant in tur-
bulent ow regime compared with laminar ow regime. So,
according to higher viscosity increment compared with thermal
conductivity increment, a reduction in the relative heat transfer
coefcient at equal pumping power is observed. Furthermore, it
is found that the relative heat transfer coefcient at 313 K is quite
similar to that of at 293 K in both laminar and turbulent ow re-
gimes, suggesting that the working temperature does not affect
heat transfer in nanouids signicantly.
Fig. 14. The relative heat transfer coefcient in Laminar ow regime at 293 K (Left) and 313 K (Right).
Fig. 15. The relative heat transfer coefcient in turbulent ow regime at 293 K (Left) and 313 K (Right).
234 M. Ghanbarpour et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 53 (2014) 227235
4. Conclusion
In this study, thermal conductivity and viscosity of water based
alumina nanouid at different mass concentrations and tempera-
tures were studied. Results indicate that Al
2
O
3
nanoparticle is a
promising additive for improving the thermal conductivity of
water. The thermal conductivity of Al
2
O
3
/water nanouids in-
creases nonlinearly with an increase in mass concentration while
its increment is almost linear with temperature at a certain con-
centration. As well as thermal conductivity, the viscosity of the
nanouid increased with increase in concentration. It was found
that the increment in viscosity of the nanouid is much higher
than that of the thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity
and viscosity enhancement are in the range of 1.187% and 18.1
300%, respectively, for mass concentration and temperature in
the range of 350% and 293313 K. According to the present exper-
imental results, some analyses and modications on some existing
correlations for thermal conductivity and viscosity of nanouids
are suggested. A theoretical analysis of thermal behavior of the
nanouid based on its experimental thermal properties in laminar
and turbulent ow regimes is studied. Results show that the aver-
age heat transfer coefcient strongly depends on the basis of com-
parison. For thermally developing laminar ow, results reveal that
the relative heat transfer coefcient increased almost 90% at mass
concentration of 50% at equal Reynolds number while it increased
50% and 20% at equal ow velocity and pumping power, respec-
tively. In turbulent ow it is found that the maximum increment
achieved at equal Reynolds number while results reveal that the
relative heat transfer coefcient decreased at equal pumping
power because of the higher increment in viscosity of the nanouid
in comparison with thermal conductivity increment.
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