Characterization of nanofluids using multifractal analysis of a liquid droplet trace

Abstract

The article presents an innovative approach to the analysis of nanofluids using a nonlinear multifractal algorithm. The conducted research concerned nanofluids prepared from SiO₂ nanoparticles (~ 0.01 g) suspended in 100 ml of demineralized water and in 100 ml of 99.5% isopropanol. Subsequently, the nanofluids were subjected to conventional characterization methods such as: determination of the contact angle, determination of zeta potential, pH, and particle size analysis. The obtained results show that the prepared nanofluid is stable in terms of agglomeration over time (nanofluid suspension) and properly prepared in terms of dissolving and dispersing powder particles. The authors, analyzing the results of the presented methods for characterizing nanofluids, proposed a multifractal analysis, which allows detailed local descriptions of complex scaling behaviour, using a spectrum of singularity exponents. Nonlinear analyzes show that the use of multifractal algorithm for nanofluids can improve the process of fluid quality analysis and its preparation based on the multifractal spectrum.