A model for the thermal conductivity of nanofluids – the effect of interfacial layer

A model for predicting the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids is proposed. It has been documented that the interfacial layer at the solid (particle)/liquid interface and particle size is one of the major mechanisms for enhancing the thermal conductivity of nanofluids. Comparing with other classical models, the proposed model takes into account some additional effects including volume fraction, thickness, thermal conductivity of the interfacial layer and particle size. The proposed model is found to be better than the existing models since the predicted effective thermal conductivity of different types of nanofluids are closer to the experimental results.