Applications of nanofluids in space for cooling

Nanofluid is a suspension of nanometer size solid particles in a liquid (base fluid). In recent years, research has shown that by dispersing a small volume of nanoparticles in conventional heat transfer fluids, their thermal performance can be enhanced. The thermal conductivity of 60/40 ethylene glycol and water mixture was increased by 34% @ 361.5K with a 1% copper oxide volumetric concentration [3]. The increase in thermal conductivity from using nanofluids will allow the reduction of size/ weight (≈7.4%) or pumping power (≈35.3%) [4] of a heat transfer system. It costs approximately $10,000 per pound ($22,000/kg) [5] to launch into Earth Orbit. If nanofluids could reduce the weight of the thermal control system by 6% [6], this could reduce the launching cost by $270,600 to $343,200