A renovated Hamilton-Crosser model for the effective thermal conductivity of CNTs nanofluids

Thermal conductivity models for nanotube based nanofluids are less common than those for nanofluids containing spherical nanoparticles In this paper, a renovated Hamilton-Crosser model for the effective thermal conductivity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) based nanofluids is proposed by simulating an equivalent anisotropic nanoparticle. The thermal conductivity of the anisotropic nanoparticle is deduced by analyzing the heat conduction process of a single CNT with an interfacial layer in an arbitrary direction. The present model which contains the effect of CNTs' diameter and aspect ratio as well as the interfacial layer was analyzed and validated with other models and available experimental data. The results show that the present model exhibits a more moderate variety rate driven by the diameter and aspect ratio of CNTs. And this characteristic results in a better adaptability than other models when compared with some available experimental results.