The Effect of CuO-Water Nanofluid and Biomaterial Wick on Loop Heat Pipe Performance

Abstract

The determinants of heat pipe performances are its wick and working fluid, instead of controlled by the material, dimension, and the shape of heat pipe. This study aimed to determine the effect of using nanofluid on the performance of Loop heat pipes (LHP) with CuO-water nanofluid that using biomaterials wick. LHP was made of 8 mm diameter copper pipe, with the diameter of evaporator and the condenser was 20 mm respectively and the length of the heat pipe was 100 mm. The wick was made of biomaterials Collaria Tabulate and the working fluid was CuO-water nanofluids where the CuO nanoparticles were synthesized by sol-gel method. The characteristic of the Tabulate Collaria biomaterial as a wick in LHP was also investigated in this experiment. The results of the experiments showed that the temperature differences between the evaporator and condenser sections with the biomaterial wick and CuO-water nanofluid were less than those using pure water. These results make the biomaterial (Collar) and nanofluids are attractive both as wick and working fluid in LHP technology. Keywords: loop heat pipe, wick, biomaterial, nanofluid.