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Computational analysis of factors influencing thermal conductivity of nanofluids

Nanoliquids provide significant improvements on their ability to conduct temperature when compared with conventional liquids. Until now, mean field theories have been used to explain enhancements in their effective thermal conductance (ETC) but they could not explain how nanoparticle-scale properties contribute to improve ETC at bulk scale. By implementing a rigorous multi-scale computing methodology, this paper shows how clusters of nanoparticles in liquids play a critical role to enhance ETC, validated where possible by experimental observations. This research has lead to on-going collaboration with Tata Steel Europe (sumitesh.das@tatasteel.com) for developing high performance nanoliquids for heat transporters in industry.