An experimental investigation on heat transfer performance of nanofluid pulsating heat pipe

Abstract

The effect of SiO2 particles on heat transfer performance of a pulsating heat pipe (PHP) was investigated experimentally. DI water was used as the base fluid and contrast medium for the PHP. In order to study and measure the character, there are SiO2/H2O nanofluids with different concentration and applying with various heating powers during the experiment investigation. According to the experimental result, the high fraction of SiO2/H2O will deteriorate the performance of PHP compared with DI water, i.e. the thermal resistance and the temperature of evaporation section increases. It is in contrary in the case of low fraction of SiO2/H2O. Finally, the comparison of the thermal performances between the normal operation system and the static settlement system is given. It is found that both the thermal resistance of nanofluid PHP and the temperature of the evaporation section increase after standing for a period, and it is the same trend for the temperature fluctuation at the identical heating power for PHP.