Experimental study on thermophysical properties of nanotubes and nanofluids

This paper reviews the studies of the thermophysical properties of nanotubes and nanofluids and reports the experimental studies on the thermal conductivity of individual carbon nanotubes and nanofluids containing spherical and cylindrical nanoparticles. The thermal conductivity of a single carbon nanotube has been measured by a suspended sample-attached T-type nanosensor. The size effect of the different diameters on the thermal conductivity has been observed experimentally. The effective thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of Au/toluene, Al2O3/water, TiO2/water, CuO/water and carbon nanofibers (CNFs)/water nanofluids have been measured by using the transient short-hot-wire technique. The measured results demonstrate that the effective thermal conductivities of CNFs/water nanofluids are much greater than those of nanofluids containing spherical nanoparticles. However, the effective thermal conductivities do not show any anomalous enhancements and can be accurately predicted by the existing formulas.