Experimental investigation of thermal conductivity of CNTs-Al2O3/water: A statistical approach

This study is primarily aimed to examine the effect of two important parameter (temperature and solid volume fraction of nanoparticles) on thermal conductivity of CNTs-Al2O3/water nanofluids. Thermal conductivity has been measured using a KD2 Pro instrument. Response surface methodology based on the miscellaneous design was performed to survey the effect of temperature and concentration on thermal conductivity of nanofluid, statistically. The responses to thermal conductivity of nanofluids were also estimated using second-order polynomial equations. Also, the significance of the models was tested using the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results of our study, which examines the optimal thermal conductivity of CNTs-Al2O3/water nanofluids at different temperatures and solid volume fraction of hybrid nanoparticles, showed that the thermal conductivity of nanofluid rises with temperature and solid volume fraction. Furthermore, the results indicated that the thermal conductivity of CNTs-Al2O3/water is precisely predictable in the model proposed by the Design Expert.