Rheological properties of vicoelastic fluid based nanofluid

Viscoelastic fluid based nanofluid (VFBN) takes the advantages of turbulent drag reduction and convective heat transfer enhancement. Rheological properties of viscoelastic fluid are related with the mechanism of turbulent drag reduction. In order to get the rheology properties of VFBN, the VFBN with aqueous solution of cetyltrimethylammonium chloride/sodium salicylate as viscoelastic base fluid and copper nanoparticles as suspended nanoparticles was prepared. The mass fraction of viscoelastic fluids are 2.5×10-3, 5×10-3 and 1×10-2, and the corresponding volume fraction of copper (spherical) nanoparticles are 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5% and 1.0%, respectively. Experimental results indicate that VFBN shows obvious shear-thinning characteristics, the suspended nanoparticles can increase the zero-shear viscosity and enhance the viscoelasticity of base fluid. Based on the Giesekus constitutive equation, fitted correlations for the measured shear viscosity of VFBN have been obtained by modifying some experimental parameters. © All Rights Reserved.