Experimental and Model Research on Nanorefrigerant Thermal Conductivity

Authors:
  • WJWeiting Jiang
    Weiting Jiang
  • HPHao Peng
    Hao Peng
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Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate nanorefrigerant thermal conductivity and to establish a model for predicting nanofluid thermal conductivity. Experimental results show that nanorefrigerant thermal conductivity greatly increases with the increase in its nanoparticle volume fraction. Initially, five typical models of nanofluid thermal conductivity were used to predict nanorefrigerant thermal conductivity, and the maximum deviations of the predictions made from each model from the experimental data were larger than 10%. Thus, a new model was developed. In the new model, the three-dimensional space structure of a nanoparticle cluster in fluid is simulated and the influence of the thickness of the nanoparticle's adsorption layer is reflected. The thermal conductivity between two connected nanoparticles and the thermal conductivity of nanoparticle clusters and nanofluids are calculated by the resistance network method. It is shown that the new model is much better in predicting nanorefrigerant thermal conductivity than the existing models, and it also can be used for predicting the thermal conductivity of conventional nanofluids as well. The deviations of the new model prediction from the experimental data for nanorefrigerants are −5% to +5%, and those for other nanofluids are −11% to +8%.

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