An experimental study on heat transfer performance of iron oxide based ferrofluids

Nanofluids are colloidal compounds, where the solid phase material is composed of nano sized particles, and the liquid phase can potentially be any fluid but aqueous media are common. As a common nanofluid type, ferrofluids are formed by holding solid nanoparticles in suspension by weak intermolecular forces and may be produced from materials with different magnetic properties. Magnetite is one of the materials used for its natural ferromagnetic properties. Heat transfer performance of ferrofluids is one of the crucial properties among many others that should be analyzed and considered for their wide range of applications. For this purpose, experiments were conducted in order to characterize heat transfer properties of ironoxide based ferrofluids flowing through a microchannel. Promising results were obtained from this study, which are suggesting the use of ferrofluids for heat transfer applications can be advantageous.Copyright © 2012 by ASME