Effect of sonication characteristics on stability, thermophysical properties, and heat transfer of nanofluids: A comprehensive review

Amin Asadi; Farzad Pourfattah; Imre Miklós Szilágyi; Masoud Afrand; Gaweł Żyła; Ho Seon Ahn; Somchai Wongwises; Hoang Minh Nguyen; Ahmad Arabkoohsar; Omid Mahian

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104701

Effect of sonication characteristics on stability, thermophysical properties, and heat transfer of nanofluids: A comprehensive review

Ultrason Sonochem. 2019 Nov:58:104701. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104701. Epub 2019 Jul 18.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark; Division of Computational Physics, Institute for Computational Science, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kashan University, Kashan, Iran.
³ Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1111 Budapest, Szt. Gellért tér 4, Hungary.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Najaf Abad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najaf Abad, Iran.
⁵ Department of Physics and Medical Engineering, Rzeszów University of Technology, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland.
⁶ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Incheon National University, Incheon, Republic of Korea.
⁷ Fluid Mechanics, Thermal Engineering and Multiphase Flow Research Laboratory (FUTURE Lab.), Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangmod, Bangkok 10140, Thailand.
⁸ Division of Computational Physics, Institute for Computational Science, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Electronic address: nguyenminhhoang1@tdtu.edu.vn.
⁹ Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark.
¹⁰ School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Quchan University of Technology, Quchan, Iran. Electronic address: omid.mahian@xjtu.edu.cn.

PMID: 31450312
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2019.104701

Abstract

The most crucial step towards conducting experimental studies on thermophysical properties and heat transfer of nanofluids is, undoubtedly, the preparation step. It is known that good dispersion of nanoparticles into the base fluids leads to having long-time stable nanofluids, which result in having higher thermal conductivity enhancement and lower viscosity increase. Ultrasonic treatment is one of the most effective techniques to break down the large clusters of nanoparticles into the smaller clusters or even individual nanoparticles. The present review aims to summarize the recently published literature on the effects of various ultrasonication parameters on stability and thermal properties of various nanofluids. The most common methods to characterize the dispersion quality and stability of the nanofluids have been presented and discussed. It is found that increasing the ultrasonication time and power results in having more dispersed and stable nanofluids. Moreover, increasing the ultrasonication time and power leads to having higher thermal conductivity and heat transfer enhancement, lower viscosity increase, and lower pressure drop. However, there are some exceptional cases in which increasing the ultrasonication time and power deteriorated the stability and thermophysical properties of some nanofluids. It is also found that employing the ultrasonic horn/probe devices are much more effective than ultrasonic bath devices; lower ultrasonication time and power leads to better results.

Keywords: Continuous and discontinuous ultrasonication; Direct and indirect ultrasonication; Thermophysical properties; Ultrasonic treatment; Ultrasonication power; Ultrasonication time.

Publication types

Review