Thermal conductivity of Al2O3 + TiO2/water nanofluid: Model development and experimental validation

A water based bi-particle nanofluid including Al2O3 and TiO2 nanoparticles was prepared and its thermal conductivity behavior was studied. Two different models were developed to predict the thermal conductivity of a bi-particle nanofluid. The first model was the extended Maxwell model (EMM) and the second one was particle mapping model (PMM). The results show that thermal conductivity of a bi-particle nanofluid versus fractional particles volume concentration has a nonlinear behavior according to the PMM and experimental results. The factors those influencing the thermal conductivity of bi-particle nanofluids were studied and it was found that the nanofluid stability is the most affecting factor for describing the nonlinear behavior of the thermal conductivity against fractional particles volume concentration. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.