Effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids: the effects of microstructure

We examine numerically the effects of particle-fluid thermal conductivity ratio, particle volume fraction, particle size distribution and particle aggregation on macroscale thermal properties for seven kinds of two-dimensional nanofluids. The results show that the radius of gyration and the non-dimensional particle-fluid interfacial area are two important parameters in characterizing the geometrical structure of nanoparticles. A non-uniform particle size is found to be unfavourable for the conductivity enhancement, while particle-aggregation benefits the enhancement especially when the radius of gyration of aggregates is large. Without considering the interfacial thermal resistance, a larger non-dimensional particle-fluid interfacial area between the base fluid and the nanoparticles is also desirable for enhancing thermal conductivity. The nanofluids with nanoparticles of connected cross-shape show a much higher (lower) effective thermal conductivity when the particle-fluid conductivity ratio is larger (smaller) than 1.