Experimental Study of the Freezing Point γ-Al2O3/Water Nanofluid

Nanofluids are colloidal suspensions made of nanometer-sized particles dispersed in a conventional fluid. Their unusual thermal properties explain intensive investigations for several thermal and industrial applications. In this work, an experimental investigation was performed to measure the freezing point and to study the supercooling point made of alumina gamma-Al2O3 nanoparticles with 30 nm diameter size and deionized water. Particles' volume fraction used in this work is ranging from 1% to 4%. The T-historic method based on the measurement of the point of inflexion was performed to measure the thermal properties such as the freezing point and the latent heat of solidification of the nanofluids for different concentrations. The results show that the supercooling degree decreases for the high particles volume concentrations and that the agglomeration does not influence the temperature of the freezing point. However, it makes the freezing process longer.