Experimental comparative study of heat pipe performance using CuO and TiO2 nanofluids

In recent years, developing an energy efficient conventional heat pipe is more important because of the development of electronics and computer industries. To enhance the thermal performance of heat pipe, different nanofluids have been widely used. In this paper, an experimental investigation of heat transfer performance of heat pipe has been conducted using three different working fluids such as DI water, CuO nanofluid and TiO2 nanofluid. The heat pipe used in this study is made up of copper layered with two layers of screen mesh wick for better capillary action. The Parameters considered in this study are heat input, angle of inclination and evaporator fill ratio. The concentration of nanoparticle used in this study is of 1.0 wt.%. From the experimental results, comparisons of thermal performance were made between the heat pipes using various working fluids. Among various fill ratio charged, the heat pipe shows good thermal performance when it is operated at 75% fill ratio for all working fluids. However, the heat pipe operated with CuO nanofluid showed higher results compared with TiO2 nanofluid and DI water. Copyright (c) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.