Recent state of nanofluid in automobile cooling systems

Abstract

Nanofluid that made up of fluid and solid nanoparticles has gained attention from diverse fields due to its superior thermophysical properties to enhance the performance of different systems which require flowing medium with excellent heat transfer behavior. Many past researchers have proven that conventional heat transfer fluid can be replaced by the rising nanotechnology–nanofluid which showed astonishing performance under different circumstances. In this paper, we attempt to present a recent review on the consequences of implantation of nanofluid, especially in vehicle engine cooling system and other heat transfer applications such as solar collector, electronics cooling system, flow boiling and thermal energy storage system. Thermophysical properties and heat transfer performance of nanofluids obtained in simulation, test rigs and even real vehicle engine experiments are discussed thoroughly. Models and correlations used by past researchers to compute thermophysical properties are also included. In the last part, various advantages from using nanofluid are summarized, and suggestions for research gap between past studies are discussed to further improve the investigation work in the future.