Abstract
The current work reports the thermophysical and flow measurements of novel thermal solvents based on deep eutectic solvents (DESs) and alumina-based nanoparticle-dispersed deep eutectic solvents (NDDESs) for its use as a potential solar energy storage medium. The DESs were synthesized using a hydrogen bond donor (i.e., oleic acid) and a hydrogen bond acceptor (i.e., dl-menthol) by using the COSMO-SAC-predicted equimolar ratio at a temperature of 350.15 K. Thereafter, NDDESs or nanofluids were formed by dispersing different volume fractions (0.001, 0.005, 0.0075, and 0.01) of Al2O3 nanoparticles in the DESs. The optimum volume fraction (0.005) of Al2O3 nanoparticles was selected through their thermophysical properties (density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, and specific heat capacity) and its agglomeration or stability behavior. As expected, NDDESs with a 0.005 volume fraction gave a higher enhancement in thermal conductivity, viscosity, heat capacity, and density as compared to DESs. To evaluate the heat transfer coefficient, forced convection experiments were conducted in a circular test section for both DESs and NDDESs under laminar conditions (Re = 124, 186, and 250). The enhancement of the local heat transfer coefficient was found to be higher when compared to their thermophysical properties. This was due to the nanoparticle migration resulting in a non-uniform distribution of both thermal conductivity and viscosity fields, which was inherently found to reduce the thermal boundary layer thickness. In the final section, the heat transfer coefficient and the Nusselt number were also validated with COMSOL Multiphysics simulations.