Enhancement of thermal performance of a loop heat pipe using alumina – water nanofluid : An experimental investigation

Abstract

The thermal performance of a loop heat pipe (LHP) with alumina – water nanofluid is experimentally investigated. The experiments are carried out in a LHP, in which the setup consists of condenser, evaporator, two transport lines (vapour and liquid lines), rotameter, power supply, thermocouples. The experiments are conducted for heat input ranging from 30 – 310 W using deionised water (baseline) and alumina – water nanofluid. Alumina nanoparticles with 2% mass concentration and water are used as working fluids. The experimental results indicate that the nanofluid can enhance the thermal performance of loop heat pipe and lower the evaporator temperature by 12% from the baseline case. The experimental results prove the capability of loop heat pipe with alumina – water nanofluid for various applications.