简介:Theeffectofnanoparticleaggregationonthethermalconductivityofnanocompositesornanofluidsistypicallynonnegligible.Auniversalmodel(Maxwellmodel)includingnanoparticleaggregationismodifiedinordertopredictthethermalconductivityofnanocompositesmoreaccurately.Thepredictedthermalconductivitiesofsilicaandtitaniananoparticlepowdersarecomparedfirstwiththatmeasuredbyahot-wiremethodandthenwiththoseinpreviousexperimentalworks.Theresultsshowthatthereisgoodagreementbetweenourmodelandexperiments,andthatnanoparticleaggregationinananocompositeenhancesthethermalconductivitygreatlyandshouldnotbeignored.Becauseitconsiderstheeffectofaggregation,ourmodelisexpectedtoyieldprecisepredictionsofthethermalconductivityofcomposites.