Sonication time efficacy on Fe3O4-liquid paraffin magnetic nanofluid thermal conductivity: An experimental evaluation

-liquid paraffin nanofluid is investigated. The nanofluid is produced at 0.005, 0.01, 0.015, 0.02, 0.025 and 0.03 vol concentrations by applying two-step method. The sonication process is performed in a temperature range of 20-90 °C. The duration of sonication seems to have two important effects: On the one hand, increasing the duration of sonication breaks the nanoparticles clusters, hence distributes the nanoparticles more uniformly which in turn rises thermal conductivity. On the other hand, an excessive increase in the duration of sonication can impair nanofluid stability. The results of experimental tests proved that the optimal duration of sonication is 3 h. The optimal duration of sonication is not dependent on the nanoparticles volume fraction (φ) and temperature. It was found that at the highest temperature and φ (90 °C,0.03), the greatest thermal conductivity enhancement (28.49%) is obtained. In contrast, at the lowest temperature and φ (20 °C,0.005) the lowest thermal conductivity enhancement was obtained (2.82%).