An experimental investigation on effect of hybrid solid MWCNTs and MgO on thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol

Abstract

In recent decade, the new advanced nanofluids, composed from various particles, have attracted the attention of researchers. This class of nanofluids, which can be prepared by suspending several types (two or more than two) of nanoparticles in base fluid, is termed as hybrid nanofluids. In this work, an experimental investigation on the effects of temperature and concentration of nanoparticles on the thermal conductivity of MgO-MWCNT/EG hybrid nanofluid is presented. The experiments performed at temperatures ranging from 25oC to 50oC and solid volume fraction range of 0 to 0.6%. The measurements revealed that the thermal conductivity of nanofluids enhances up to 23.3% with increase in concentration of nanoparticles and temperature. Moreover, efforts were made to provide an accurate correlation for estimating the thermal conductivity at various temperatures and concentrations. Deviation analysis of the thermal conductivity ratio was performed. The comparison between experimental results and correlations outputs showed a maximum deviation margin of 0.95%, which is an acceptable accuracy for an empirical correlation.