Modeling and Prediction of the Dynamic Viscosity of Nanofluids by a Homogenization Method

Nanofluids are an innovative technology that can be used to improve the efficiency of heat transfer in systems such as coolers. Thermal system design requires access to all the physical properties of the nanofluids among which viscosity, thermal conductivity, and so on. Viscosity is an important flow property of fluids. Literally, viscosity analysis is quite essential for determining the thermofluidic behavior of heat transfer fluids. Therefore, we developed a new micromechanical model using the finite element method to calculate the dynamic viscosity of different types of nanofluids with different volume concentrations. The finite element method (FEM) model, using FreeFem + + software, is compared to an analytical creep function that provides a way to extract the viscosity when constant shear stress on the 2DKelvin-Voigt medium is applied. The model results showed a very good agreement compared to the experimental data from the literature. Also, this model was compared to some viscosity correlations such as Einstein, Brinkman, Batchelor, Corcione, and Rudyak.