PEG 400-Based phase change materials Nano-Enhanced with Alumina: An experimental approach

Abstract

This article depicts several novel experimental data on thermophysical properties of Al2O3/PEG 400 nanoparticle enhanced fluids. Both temperature variation and nanoparticle mass concentration are investigated as main factors for influencing the viscosity and heat capacity of studied nanofluids. Different approaches were used in this study to compare the data and to outline the theoretical interpretation of our experimental data.Rheological experiments at two temperatures, 288.15 K and 298.15 K show a Newtonian behavior for PEG 400 and the fluids with Al2O3 nanoparticles, while the increase in viscosity is up to 32 %, depending on the mass concentration of nanoparticles. The experimental work involved also several heating–cooling cycles and it was noticed that viscosity decreases while temperature increase and a small hysteresis (up to 10 %) was noticed for higher loadings of nanoparticles. Viscosity data analysis involved a comparison with well-known correlations as well as a VFT analysis followed by a 3D analysis of all experimental data. Specific heat for most of the nanofluids increase both with nanoparticle mass concentration and temperature; exception is the 5 %wt alumina–PEG 400. The goodness of theoretical correlations for viscosity are discussed and new correlations for viscosity and specific heat are proposed.

Keywords

• Specific heat
• Viscosity
• PEG 400
• Al2O3 Nanoparticles