Nanofluids have many potentially heat transfer applications,[4] including microelectronics, fuel cells, pharmaceutical processes, and hybrid-powered engines,[5] engine cooling/vehicle thermal management, domestic refrigerator, chiller, heat exchanger, in grinding, machining and in boiler flue gas temperature reduction. They exhibit enhanced thermal conductivity and convective heat transfer coefficient compared to the base fluid.[6] Knowledge of the rheological behaviour of nanofluids is critical in deciding their suitability for convective heat transfer applications.[7][8] Nanofluids also have special acoustical properties and in ultrasonic fields display shear-wave reconversion of an incident compressional wave; the effect becomes more pronounced as concentration increases.[9]
In computational fluid dynamics (CFD), nanofluids can be assumed to be single phase fluids;[10][11] however, almost all academic papers use a two-phase assumption. Classical theory of single phase fluids can be applied, where physical properties of nanofluid is taken as a function of properties of both constituents and their concentrations.[12] An alternative approach simulates nanofluids using a two-component model.[13]
The spreading of a nanofluid droplet is enhanced by the solid-like ordering structure of nanoparticles assembled near the contact line by diffusion, which gives rise to a structural disjoining pressure in the vicinity of the contact line.[14] However, such enhancement is not observed for small droplets with diameter of nanometer scale, because the wetting time scale is much smaller than the diffusion time scale.[15]
^Chen, H.; Witharana, S.; et al. (2009). "Predicting thermal conductivity of liquid suspensions of nanoparticles (nanofluids) based on Rheology". Particuology. 7 (2): 151–157. doi:10.1016/j.partic.2009.01.005.
^Alizadeh, M. R.; Dehghan, A. A. (2014-02-01). "Conjugate Natural Convection of Nanofluids in an Enclosure with a Volumetric Heat Source". Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering. 39 (2): 1195–1207. doi:10.1007/s13369-013-0658-2. ISSN2191-4281. S2CID137198606.