Investigation of the viscosity of nanofluids

This study aims to investigate the effect of the particle size, particle concentration and temperature on the rheological properties of nanofluids. Experimental investigations were performed with alumina – water nanofluids with different particle sizes (10 nm and 30 nm) at different volume concentrations (1, 2, 3 and 6.33 percentages as volumetric) at varying temperature range from 5 to 50 centigrade degrees. The results of the rheological measurements indicate that, nanofluid samples show a Newtonian fluid behavior. Also, some comparisons were made between the experimental results and effective viscosity models from the literature. From our results it is seen that viscosity of the samples increases with the increase in particle size and concentration. On the other hand viscosity of the samples decreases with the increase in temperature in a similar trend as the base fluid water.