Thermophysical properties of nanoparticles in carboxylmethyl cellulose water mixture for heat enhancement applications

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering 2020-03, Vol.805 (1), p.12025
• Main Authors: Akinpelu, F O, Alabison, R M, Olaleye, O A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; Carboxylmethyl cellulose; Cellulose; Copper oxides; Differential equations; Drilling fluids; Drilling muds; Heat conductivity; Heat transfer; High temperature; Mathematical analysis; metal oxide; Metal oxides; Nanoparticles; Ordinary differential equations; Runge Kutta scheme; Runge-Kutta method; Thermal conductivity; Thermophysical properties; Titanium dioxide; Titanium oxides; Viscosity; volume fraction
• ISSN: 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/805/1/012025

A successful drilling operation requires among others an effective drilling fluid which is also called drilling mud. Carboxylmethyl cellulose (CMC) which is a derivative of cellulose is commonly used because of its high viscosity. Its performance as a drilling fluid is limited at high temperatures and pressures due to its low thermal conductivity. A colloidal mixture of nanoparticles in CMC enhances the performance of the fluid. In this work, a comparison of the thermophysical properties of three metal oxides namely Titanium Oxide (TiO2), Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and Copper Oxide (CuO) dispensed in Carboxylmethyl cellulose (CMC) water mixture in drilling operations were investigated at varying temperatures. Maximum of 0.4 volume fraction of the nanoparticles of each of the oxides in less or equal to 0.4 (≤ 0.4) of CMC concentration in water was considered. The governing equations obtained were simplified to a set of Ordinary Differential Equations which were solved numerically using Runge Kutta Scheme (order 4) along with shooting method. Results obtained showed that the metal oxides enhanced the heat transfer capability of the CMC water mixture. Besides, the conductivity enhancement is least with TiO2 in CMC water mixture and maximum with CuO in CMC water mixture. Viscosity and thermal conductivity increased with increasing volume fraction of the nanoparticles in the dispensing medium. These results were compared with existing literature and found to be in good agreement.