Thermal Wavelength Measurement of Nanofluid in an Optical-Fiber Thermal Wave Cavity Technique to Determine the Thermal Diffusivity

The application of optical-fiber thermal wave cavity (OF-TWC) technique was investigated to measure the thermal diffusivity of Ag nanofluids. The thermal diffusivity was obtained by measuring the thermal wavelength of sample in a cavity scan mode. The spherical Ag nanoparticles samples were prepared at various sizes using the microwave method. Applying the thermal wavelength measurement in a flexible OF-TWC technique requires only two experimental data sets. It can be used to estimate thermal diffusivity of a small amount of liquid samples (0.3 ml) in a brief period. UV-Vis spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to measure the characterization of the Ag nanoparticles. The thermal diffusivity of distilled water, glycerol, and two different types of cooking oil was measured and has an excellent agreement with the reported results in the literature (difference of only 0.3%–2.4%). The nanofluids showed that the highest value of thermal diffusivity was achieved for smaller sized nanoparticles. The results of this method confirmed that the thermal wavelength measurement method using the OF-TWC technique had potential as a tool to measure the thermal diffusivity of nanofluids with different variables such as the size, shape, and concentration of the nanoparticles.

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