CONVECTION HEAT TRANSFER MODELING OF AG NANOFLUID USING DIFFERENT VISCOSITY THEORIES

In this paper, the effects of adding nanoparticles (including Ag) to a fluid media for improving free convection heat transfer were analysed. The free convective heat transfer was assumed to be in laminar flow regime, and the corresponding calculations and solutions were all done by the integral method. Water, as a Newtonian fluid, was considered as the base and all relevant thermo physical properties of the nanofluids were considered to be unvarying. The calculations performed and the graphs generated showed that, in general, the addition of nanoparticles to the fluid media resulted in an increment or improvement of its heat transfer coefficient. With increase in the concentration of the nanoparticles, the heat transfer rate of the fluid also increased. The increment in heat transfer is also dependent on the nanoparticles’ thermal conductivity and the viscosity theory which was utilized in the calculations. In this study, four different theories were used to calculate the viscosities of the nanofluids. The effects of viscosity on the nanofluids’ thermal conductivity were apparent from the calculations which were performed for nanoparticle concentrations of 4% or less.