A COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF Al2O3/H2O, SiO2/H2O AND ZrO2/H2O NANOFLUID FOR HEAT TRANSFER APPLICATIONS

In this paper, a direct comparison of the thermo-physical properties such as thermal conductivity and viscosity which are dominating the convective heat transfer phenomena of different nanofluids with three different volumetric concentration (0.5%, 0.75% and 1%) when calculated quantity of nanoparticles like Al2O3 (Alumina), SiO2 (Silica) and ZrO2 (Zirconia) were dispersed in deionized (DI) water were investigated. Al2O3/H2O and SiO2/H2O nanofluids were prepared without using any surfactant and ZrO2/H2O nanofluid prepared with surfactant yttriumoxide. The obtained results showed thatthermal conductivity enhancement of 10.13% for Al2O3/H2O, 6.5% for SiO2/H2O and 8.5% for ZrO2/H2O at 1% volume concentration. Besides, the results showed that the viscosity increases with increase of particle volume concentration. Finally, the experimental results were compared within their corresponding theoretical data outcomes and the results are found to be in good agreement.