Experimental investigation of Rheological behavior and pressure drop of aqueous suspensions of carbon nanotubes in a horizontal tube

A new engineering medium, called nanofluid, have attracted a wide range of researches on many processes in engineering applications. Many experimental and theoretical studies on viscosity of nanofluids are controversial and the shear rate dependent viscosity is frequently neglected. The aim of the present work is to investigate the effect of the rheological behavior of aqueous suspensions of carbon nanotubes on the friction factor and the pressure drop in a horizontal tube under laminar and turbulent flow. The particles weight concentration used here is 0.01%. The rheological behavior was measured for a range of temperature from 0 degrees C to 40 degrees C. The results showed that the nanofluids exhibit a shear thinning behavior at very low shear stress. The analysis results of the flow characteristics showed a non-Newtonian behavior under laminar flow and a Newtonian behavior under turbulent flow. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.