The effect of Fe3O4 nanoparticles on the thermal conductivities of various base fluids

Conventional heat transfer fluids have intrinsically poor heat transfer properties compared to solids. Enhancing the efficiency of heat transfer is of great interest for various industrial applications. Suspending solid particles in a fluid increases the thermal conductivity of the resulting suspension and enhances the heat transfer properties. In this work, changes in thermal conductivities of fluids upon the addition of magnetic nanoparticles have been investigated. Fe3O4 nanoparticles are synthesized using different synthesis methods and are suspended in various oils. The effect of the base fluid and the type of magnetic particle on the thermal conductivity is investigated in detail. Up to 28% increase in the thermal conductivity is obtained with 2.5 wt% magnetic particles in hexane. The thermal conductivity enhancement is found to depend on the particle concentration, method of preparation and base fluid. The enhancements obtained are higher than those estimated using any theoretical model present in the literature.