The Thermal Transport Properties of Ethylene Glycol Based MGO Nanofluids

Ethylene glycol based nanofluids containing MgO nanoparticles (MgO-EG) were prepared, and the transport properties including thermal conductivity and viscosity were measured. The results show that the thermal conductivity of MgO-EG nanofluid depends strongly on particle concentration, and it increases nonlinearly with the volume fraction of nanoparticles. The thermal conductivity of MgO-EG nanofluids is larger than that of nanofluids containing the same volume fraction of TiO2, ZnO, Al2O3 and SiO2, maybe due to its lowest viscosity among the tested metallic oxide nanofluids. Thermal conductivity enhancement of MgO-EG nanofluids appears weak dependence on temperature from 10 to 60°C, and the enhanced ratios are almost constant. Viscosity measurements show that MgO-EG nanofluids demonstrate Newtonian behavior, and the viscosity significantly decreases with temperature. The thermal conductivity and viscosity increments of nanofluids are higher than those of the existing classical models for the solid-liquid mixture.