Determination of nanolayer thickness and effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids

What is it about?

Van der Waals attraction energy between the ordered liquid nanolayer and solid particle in nanofluids was calculated. A new model was proposed for determining the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids.

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Why is it important?

Calculating the Van der Waals interaction energy between a nanoparticle and an ordered liquid nanolayer around it we analytically determined the nanolayer thickness for the first time. We proved that the frequency of heat exchange by fluid molecules is two orders of magnitude higher than the frequency of heat transfer by nanoparticles, and therefore the contribution due to the Brownian motion of nanoparticles in heat transport of a nanofluid can be neglected. The predictions of the proposed model of thermal conductivity of nanofluids, which takes into account only the aggregation of nanoparticles and the presence of a structured nanolayer around the nanoparticle are in good agreement with experimental data.