The thermophysical properties and enhanced heat transfer performance of SiC-MWCNTs hybrid nanofluids for car radiator system

[Display omitted] A new method for preparing SiC-MWCNTs nanofluids. •Homogeneous and stable EG-based SiC-MWCNTs nanofluids were prepared.•A maximum enhancement of 32.01 % on thermal conductivity was found on 0.4 vol.%.•The SiC-MWCNTs nanofluids behaved Newtonian behavior.•The results indicated its potential applications in car radiator system. Hybrid nanofluids have a broad development prospect in the field of heat transfer fluids. Exploring the practical application potential of hybrid nanofluids and the mechanism of enhancing thermophysical properties is one of the significant contents of the current research. Therefore, the enhanced heat transfer performance and thermophysical property distribution of ethylene glycol-based silicon carbide-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) hybrid nanofluids as coolant in automobile engine cooling system were experimentally studied in this paper. Combined with the high thermal conductivity, high temperature stability and coupling effect of two nano-materials, the thermal conductivity of studied hybrid nanofluids was obviously enhanced and it was increased along with volume concentration increasing. The maximum enhancement was found to be 32.01 % on the hybrid nanofluids of 0.4 vol.%. And the SiC-MWCNTs nanofluids was Newtonian fluid. The viscosity increased with the particle loading but decline with the temperature. These excellent properties also affected the heat transfer performance of nano-coolant. The maximum convective heat transfer coefficient of SiC-MWCNTs nanofluids was 26 % higher than that of pure EG under the same conditions. In addition, the heat transfer benefit of SiC-MWCNTs hybrid nanofluid showed its application potential in car radiator systems.