SBIR Phase I: Continuous Production of Nanofluids by Flame Aerosol Process

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will demonstrate the development of an innovative liquid combustion process for continuous production of nanofluids with suspended unagglomerated metallic and non-metallic nanopowders of uniform size and composition. It has been demonstrated that fluids containing solid metallic nanoparticles -nanofluids- display significantly enhanced thermal conductivities relative to conventional heat transfer fluids. A related goal of this effort is the development of a new large-eddy simulation (LES) model for nanoparticle formation and aggregation coupled to local Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulation models. This numerical tool will be applied to design process parameters to produce the desired particle size distribution. The use of nanofluids can impact many industrial sectors, including transportation, electronics, energy supply, textiles etc. Mostly all the sectors that have thermal-management systems will benefit from this project.