High shear rate experiments have been performed with capillary microviscometers onto ${\text{SiO}}_2$ nanoparticles dispersed in alcohol (so-called nanofluids). The aim of these experiments was to investigate the processes of aggregation and dislocation of the nanoparticles in a shear flow under perikinetic and orthokinetic conditions. Shear rates as high as $2\times {10}^5{\text{s}}^{-1}$ were obtained in pressure-driven microchannels laminar flows. All the nanofluids under test have displayed a Newtonian behavior but with a strong enhanced viscosity, that is, the consequence of an effective volume concentration higher than the real one. It was possible to determine the average size of the aggregates and to find a correlation between their structure and the range of the hydrodynamic Peclet number at which experiments were performed. These results display a strong evidence of the role of aggregates and support the recent conclusions about the controversy of the thermal properties of nanofluids.

• Received 31 March 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.80.051403