Thermally-Enhanced Nanofluids

Thermally-Enhanced Nanofluids

This is a past event

The School Seminars give introductions and overviews of research areas rather than a discussion of technical details. Therefore they are interesting for an audience across the disciplines. MEng students in their final year are welcome to attend as well.

Abstract:

“If I were asked for an area of science and engineering that will

most likely produce the breakthroughs of tomorrow, I would point to

nanoscale science and engineering.”  Prof. Neal Lane

Heat transfer is a well established field which is becoming limited by

the thermophysical properties of available heat-transfer fluids. One

exciting avenue of research is that of nanofluids, where nanoparticles

are added to a base fluid to enhance its thermal properties. Initial

experimental results have shown that for certain mixtures a large

enhancement of the thermal conductivity occurs which greatly exceeds

theoretical predictions. This caused significant controversy in the

literature; however, in recent times many of these anomalous results

have been shown to be within the bounds of classical theories. In this

seminar, this history is reviewed and a novel mechanism for heat

transfer in nanofluids is proposed. It is demonstrated that this

mechanism allows truly "anomalous" thermal behaviours for nanofluids

mixtures. It is demonstrated through kinetic theory that insulating

nanoparticles can actually increase thermal conductivity of the base

fluid under certain conditions, defying all predictions of classical

theories. This discovery is validated using molecular dynamics

simulations and an outlook of the application of these results is

presented.

Speaker
Dr Marcus Campbell-Bannerman
Hosted by
Engineering
Venue
FN LT3