Nanofluids for Heat Transfer Enhancement in Aircraft Systems

The Air Force is seeking new cooling technologies that will provide improved heat transfer performance that results in a significantly lighter and smaller heat exchange system to support the increasing demand for heat removal in modern engineering designs used in military aircraft systems. METSS proposes an approach it has used successfully in SBIR programs previously sponsored by the Air Force to successfully develop a stable, easily prepared, aircraft nanofluid coolant with significantly better thermophysical properties that will become an integral component of future thermal management systems. METSS plans to build upon its extensive experience with heat transfer fluids and knowledge gained from an on-going Air Force radar coolant program along with previous nanomaterial efforts. This approach emphasizes commercial participation and the use of commercially available products to develop synthetic fluid formulations with improved performance relative to conventional fluids. The enhanced heat transfer performance of these nanofluids will be clearly quantitated relative to the conventional heat transfer carrier fluid. Other key properties of the nanocoolant will also be evaluated and compared to the base heat transfer fluid.