ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the theory behind the hot-wire calorimetry and review the experimental method. It describes the experimental setup and discusses after reporting on the nanofluid preparation and reviews the experimental results obtained by us for the effective thermal conductivity of the different samples. Values for the effective thermal conductivity of the nanofluids were obtained by the transient hot-wire technique. Nowadays, this technique is accepted as the most precise and reliable method to measure the thermal conductivity of fluids over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. One interesting issue concerning the thermal conductivity of nanofluids is if the observed enhancements can be explained in terms of existing effective-medium theoretical models. Nanoparticles tend to sediment at the bottom of the sample containers, causing the physical properties of the bulk nanofluid to change with time. Only λ values are presented for nanofluids, showing reproducibility and sample homogeneity during the measurement period.
