Thermoacoustic investigations on nanofluids

Nanofluids have a great attention because it has an enormous potential to improve the efficiency of heat transfer systems owing to its high thermal conductivity. In this work, iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized using cost-effective chemical method. The nanostructured iron oxide powder were characterized by various techniques viz., X- ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) etc. The iron oxide based nanofluids of different concentrations in the range 0.02%, to 1.8% were prepared. The size of nanoparticles used was in the range 20-50 nm. A comprehensive correlation of ultrasonic velocity and thermal conductivity is proposed based on experimental observations. The effect of concentration on ultrasonic velocity, compressibility and on thermal conductivity was studied. Such approach can be useful in studying the relationship between various properties of nanofluids such as ultrasonic velocity, thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity, compressibility etc.