Thermal Performance of a Compact Loop Heat Pipe with Silver-Water Nanofluid

Abstract

The thermal performance of a compact loop heat pipe is fabricated and tested for different heat inputs ranging from 30 W to 500 W using water and silver-water nanofluid with low volume concentrations of silver nanoparticles (0.03% and 0.09%) in vertical orientation. A flat square evaporator having a bottom area of 30 mm × 30 mm and a height of 15 mm is used in the present study. The effect of heat input on the thermal resistance, evaporation and condensation heat transfer coefficient is experimentally investigated. The results showed that a reduction in the evaporator thermal resistance of 26.45% is achieved with 0.09 volume percentage of silver nanoparticles when compared with that of water. Further an enhancement in the convective heat transfer coefficient of 25.23% has been observed with the same volume concentration of silver nanoparticles. Addition of small amount of nanoparticles enhanced the operating range of heat pipe beyond 500 W and without the occurrence of any dry out conditions. From the outcome of this study, it is concluded that the compact loop heat pipe with flat square evaporator can be used for thermal control of electronic equipments with limited space.