An approach to characterize the nanolayer for a nanofluid: thickness, density and molar mass

Abstract

The aim of this work is to develop a theoretical approximation to calculate the effective thickness, density and molar mass of the interfacial nanolayer around nanofluid particles. These properties of the nanolayer depend, in general, on temperature, on the nature of the base fluid, the nature of nanoparticles, their geometry and their concentration. The model takes into account all these parameters. This is presented for a general geometry and it is shown that the effective nanolayer molar mass is equal to that of the base fluid. Then, this is particularized for a spherical geometry, which is one of the most usual in literature, and is numerically applied to the aqueous alumina (15 nm) nanofluids at different temperatures and nanoparticle concentrations. The obtained results together with those from the application of the model to some nanofluids from literature, at different temperatures and nanoparticle concentrations, allow providing a general insight into the effective behavior of those nanolayer properties. Finally, it is shown that the model, under its hypothesis, does not support the equation of Pak and Cho except as an approximation.