ABSTRACT

The present study investigates the temperature-dependent efficacy analysis of

nanofluids for both laminar and turbulent flow applications. Characterizations
for the thermo-physical properties of nanofluids are carried out at different
temperatures for the viability analysis. Thermal conductivity of yttria
nanofluids shows strong temperature dependence compared
to copper nanofluids with an increase of 7.5% to 21% for a temperature range
of 25 °C to 85 °C. Moreover, the effective viscosity of yttria nanofluids is
found to decrease gradually with temperatures in spite of copper nanofluid
insensitivity. A theoretical study is carried out to compute the efficacy of
yttria and copper nanofluids for laminar and turbulent flow regimes over a
range of temperatures with the help of their thermo-physical properties. Yttria
nanofluids are found viable for both laminar and turbulent flow for
temperatures above 37 °C and 45 °C, respectively. On the other
hand, copper nanofluids are found applicable only in laminar flow condition
for temperatures above 75 °C. The stability and superior figure of merit for
yttria nanofluids with temperature make it a potential coolant for higher-
temperature convective cooling systems working on both laminar
and turbulent flows.