Performance Of Pulsating Heat Pipe Research Articles

Experimental investigation on the heat transfer performance of pulsating heat pipe with self-rewetting Fe3O4-nanofluid

This paper conducted an experimental study on the heat transfer performance of pulsating heat pipe (PHP) under three different working fluids: ultrapure water, n-butanol self-rewetting fluid (SRWF), and self-rewetting Fe3O4-nanofluid (SRNF). The effects of filling ratio (FR), heating power, and magnetic field are studied. The results mainly show that the PHP with SRNF under a magnetic field, the start-up time increases, the evaporation section operating temperature increases, and the thermal performance decreases as the filling ratio increases. Increasing the FR, applying SRWF and SRNF can effectively increase the dry-out limit of PHP. At FR = 50 %, the overall thermal performance of PHP is best. In 10–130W, the thermal resistance of the SRWF and the SRNF with/without magnetic field is reduced by 14.5 %–27.8 %, 27.6 %–47.9 %, and 4.2 %–24.8 %, respectively, compared with that of ultrapure water. Similarly, compared without a magnetic field, the thermal resistance of SRNF with a magnetic field is reduced by 14.0 %–35.1 %. At FR = 50 %, the heat transfer performance of SRNF-PHP is best with a magnetic field. When the input power is 130W, the effective heat transfer coefficient keff is 5967.6 W/m∙ K, approximately 13.92 times greater than copper.

Experimental study on heat transfer performance enhancement of pulsating heat pipes induced by surfactants

Pulsating heat pipe (PHP) is considered as a promising technique to address the thermal dissipation issues in micro-electronic devices, but its heat transfer performance needs to be further enhanced urgently. In this study, the PHP comprehensive performance experimental system was established. Then, the influence of surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) aqueous solution on the heat transfer performance of PHP was experimentally investigated and the visualization of PHP with surfactant was also accomplished. Additionally, based on Marangoni effect and surface tension, a comprehensive analysis was conducted on the impact mechanism of surfactants on PHP. The experimental results indicated that the oscillatory disturbance of the liquid slug inside the PHP is enhanced by the addition of SDS, and the resulting pressure imbalance and temperature difference enhance the directional flow of the working fluid. Meanwhile, under the operating conditions of 30 W working thermal power and the solution concentration of 0.001 wt%, the thermal resistance of PHP was reduced by 30.7 % compared with that of deionized water (DI water). This indicated that the working fluid with low concentration SDS could increase the area of liquid film and reduce the thermal resistance, which is induced by the surface tension and Marangoni effect due to the uneven distribution of surfactants. However, the thermal resistance of PHP with the SDS concentration of 0.2 wt% is higher than that of DI. This means that high concentration of SDS would deteriorate the startup characteristics and the heat transfer performance of PHP. Therefore, high concentrations of surfactants should be avoided from practical application of PHP.

The DEPLOY! Project: Development of a Deployable Pulsating Heat Pipe experiment on a parabolic flight

DEPLOY! Project aims at analysing the behaviour of Deployable Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP) shaped as a helicoidal torsional spring in the adiabatic section on board a Parabolic Flight platform. A PHP is a passive thermal control device where the heat is efficiently transported by means of the self-sustained oscillatory fluid motion driven by the phase change phenomena. The microgravity environment allows to eliminate the buoyancy force contribution in the liquid phase momentum. Consequently, it is possible to isolate the contribution of the pressure drop caused by the 3D arrangement and infer on their effect on the PHP performance. As a result, a proper design based on the previous considerations would increase the flexibility of the PHP for use in space applications without significant reductions in efficiency. The goal of DEPLOY! is to demonstrate the functionality of a Deployable Pulsating Heat Pipe in various unfolding configurations by analysing its thermal-hydraulic response throughout a Parabolic Flight. The presented Deployable PHP is composed of an aluminium tube (inner/outer diameters 1.6mm/2.6 mm) and filled with HFE-7000. It is heated at the evaporator using a flat heater and cooled at the condenser with a water-cooled cold plate. T-type thermocouples are used to measure the wall temperature in several locations, while two pressure transducers (one located in the evaporator section and another in the condenser section of the same pipe) measure the local fluid pressure. Additionally, an IR Camera will be used to observe a section of the pipe for further analysis of the flow frequency. The device operation will be tested on ground and 0-g at different heat loads (24W, 34W), in multiple static positions corresponding to different opening angles (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, 180°) and during its dynamic opening from 0° to 180°, thanks to a remotely controllable motion system.

Numerical Study on Single Turn Pulsating Heat Pipe with Additional Branch Configuration

The simple wickless structure and strong heat transfer potential of pulsating heat pipes (PHP) have prompted widespread interest in transferring heat from electronic devices. This work proposes a novel single-turn PHP with convergent and divergent shaped additional branches (ABs) (C-PHP and D-PHP) in the evaporator section, which could increase latent heat transfer in the evaporator by minimizing the saturation temperature and improving the unidirectional flow and thermal performance of PHP. Numerical simulations were performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques to understand the thermo-hydrodynamics and properties of the proposed novel PHPs. This study provides the outcomes of novel PHPs and a comparison with the performance of traditional PHP (T-PHP) without AB and straight AB PHP (S-PHP). The results demonstrated that the startup time of novel C-PHP and D-PHP were improved by 32.6% and 22.4%, respectively, compared to the T-PHP, “stopovers” and “local flow reversals” are minimized by the use of AB. The average flow velocity of novel C-PHP and D-PHP was improved by 16% when compared to T-PHP and 11.4% compared to S-PHP, the directional component in C-PHP is substantially stronger than S-PHP and D-PHP.

Innovative experimental approach for the dynamic Multi-Variable investigation of Pulsating heat Pipes

Pulsating Heat Pipes (PHP) are passive two-phase heat transfer devices characterized by a simple structure and high heat transfer capabilities. Despite this, their large-scale application is still hindered by the actual unpredictability of their dynamic behavior during the startup and the thermal crisis. An innovative experimental apparatus is designed to systematically investigate the above-mentioned phenomena. It consists in a square loop made of four borosilicate transparent glass tubes joined at corners by means of brass connectors. The external tube surface is coated with several transparent Indium Tin Oxide heaters. The device is used to topologically reproduce 5, 7, and 11 evaporator/condenser sections PHPs with a 2 mm inner diameter tube, filled with pure ethanol and tested in horizontal position. First a steady-state characterization is performed. The condenser temperature is varied from 10 °C to 40 °C; the input power goes from 10 W to 40 W. Results show that both the increase of number of evaporator sections and condenser temperature enhance the PHP performance in terms of equivalent thermal resistance. Then, the effect of the condenser temperature on the initial liquid phase distribution is analyzed. It is observed that at low condenser temperatures (10 °C, 20 °C), the liquid phase tends to gather in the condenser sections rather than the evaporator sections and it is arranged in short liquid plugs; conversely, for high condenser temperatures (30 °C, 40 °C), the amount of liquid phase in evaporators is higher and it is arranged in long liquid plugs. Finally, the transient behavior is studied in terms of startup time. It is observed that the parameter influencing most the startup time is the initial fluid distribution; the startup time increases with the increase of evaporator sections volume occupied by liquid phase and with the length of liquid plugs; on the other hand, the startup time decreases with the increase of number of menisci in the evaporator sections.

Design and performance evaluation of pulsating heat pipe using metallic nanoparticles based hybrid nanofluids

Pulsating heat pipes (PHP) use two-phase flows to transport heat between evaporators and condensers. The performance of PHP largely depends on the thermal conductivity of the working fluid. The research objective of this study is to investigate PHP performance enhancement with HNF consisting of metallic and metallic oxide nanoparticles and compare the PHP performance with different working fluids. A three-turn PHP made from copper tubing was fabricated and charged with Al2O3-Cu HNF, Al2O3 mono nanofluid, Cu mono nanofluid, and pure water for performance evaluation. A total of ninety-eight (98) experiments were conducted with four working fluids over a range of operating conditions, including nanoparticles weight concentration (0.1 % and 0.2 %), filling ratio (50 % and 60 %) and heat input (30–90 W). Results showed that the Al2O3-Cu HNF achieved 30–54 % lower thermal resistance than water, and 17–43 % lower than the mono nanofluids at the same filling ratio, weight concentration and heat input, which indicates superior heat transfer enhancement. The optimal condition for the PHP filled with Al2O3-Cu HNF examined in this study was achieved at a 60 % filling ratio and a 0.2 % weight concentration of nanoparticles. However, maintaining the stability of Al2O3-Cu HNF poses challenges due to the hydrophobic nature of Cu nanoparticles. Future studies are planned to use molecular dynamics simulation to investigate factors influencing the stability of metallic nanoparticles-based mono and hybrid nanofluids.

An Experimental Investigation on the Heat Transfer Characteristics of Pulsating Heat Pipe with Adaptive Structured Channels

In recent years, the development of electronic chips has focused on achieving high integration and lightweight designs. As a result, pulsating heat pipes (PHPs) have gained widespread use as passive cooling devices due to their exceptional heat transfer capacity. Nevertheless, the erratic pulsations observed in slug flow across multiple channels constitute a significant challenge, hindering the advancement of start-up and heat dissipation capabilities in traditional PHP systems. In this paper, we introduce a flat plate pulsating heat pipe (PHP) featuring adaptive structured channels, denoted as ASCPHP. The aim is to enhance the thermal performance of PHP systems. These adaptive structured channels are specifically engineered to dynamically accommodate volume changes during phase transitions, resulting in the formation of a predictable and controllable two-phase flow. This innovation is pivotal in achieving a breakthrough in the thermal performance of PHPs. We experimentally verified the heat transfer performance of the ASCPHP across a range of heating loads from 10 to 75 W and various orientations spanning 0 to 90 degrees, while maintaining a constant filling ratio (FR) of 40%. In comparison to traditional PHP systems, the ASCPHP design, as proposed in this study, offers the advantage of achieving a lower evaporation temperature and a more uniform temperature distribution across the PHP surface. The thermal resistances are reduced by a maximum of 37.5% when FR is 40%. The experimental results for start-up characteristics, conducted at a heating power of 70 W, demonstrate that the ASCPHP exhibits the quickest start-up response and the lowest start-up temperature among the tested configurations. Furthermore, thanks to the guiding influence of adaptive structured channels on two-phase flow, liquid replenishment in the ASCPHP exhibits minimal dependence on gravity. This means that the ASCPHP can initiate the start-up process promptly, even when placed horizontally.

Experimental investigation of the flooding phenomenon in a pulsating heat pipe unit cell

This study presents an experimental investigation on characterization and quantification of flooding phenomenon in a pulsating heat pipe (PHP) unit cell at different orientations, evaporator and condenser temperatures. A transparent capillary tube having a diameter of 2.5mm is used as a PHP unit cell, and n-pentane is used as the working fluid. The meniscus oscillations along with flooding events are recorded using a high-speed camera. Three different flooding mechanisms are recognized, viz., wave transport with film drainage delay, wave transport with slug formation, and droplet entrainment. The flooding frequency is determined for each flooding mechanism at different combinations of the operating boundary conditions. The adverse impact of flooding on the performance of PHP is realized apparently by considering its influence on the amplitude and frequency of meniscus oscillations. The approximate liquid deficit in evaporator caused by flooding is also estimated for one of the mechanisms, viz. wave transport with slug formation. Thus, role of flooding in accession of the operational limit of a PHP is signified. Further, the hydrodynamics of flooding is studied in detail. The superficial velocity of vapor at the onset of flooding and film-vapor interfacial wavelength are determined for a few cases and compared to the respective predictions based on some of the most widely accepted correlations. It is found that none of the considered correlations could predict the flooding velocity of vapor for the present experiments. The study signifies the need to study flooding more intensively for PHPs in near future.

Pulsating heat pipe and embedded heat pipe heat spreaders for modular electronics cooling

Two-phase-based heat spreaders are highly sought electronics cooling solutions due to their superior thermal performance over conventional conduction plates. Along with good thermal performance, Pulsating Heat Pipes (PHPs) potentially have thickness, shape matching and cost benefits over Embedded Heat Pipe (EHP) heat spreader solutions. In this manuscript, the thermal performance of PHP charged with three different fluids-propylene, R245fa, and acetone was experimentally determined for different sink temperatures and compared to an EHP heat spreader. A mathematical model to predict the thermal performance of the PHP was developed and validated against experimental results. It was determined that at low sink temperatures, PHP charged with propylene performs better than or similar to an EHP heat spreader with up to 7.8 times higher effective thermal conductivity over a conduction plate. However, at moderate temperatures above >40 °C, propylene PHP dries out faster than the EHP plate. PHP performance with R245fa and acetone improves with increasing heater power. Effective thermal conductivity improved by 2.5 times with R245fa PHP and by 4 times with acetone PHP over the conventional plate but was lower than the EHP plate whose effective thermal conductivity was 17.3 times higher. However, weight comparison showed PHP to be lighter than the EHPs.

Improvements in performance and durability through surface modification of aluminum micro-pulsating heat pipe using water as working fluid

PHPs (pulsating heat pipes) using water are typically made of Cu and Si. Although Al is more sustainable than Cu and cheaper than Si (in addition to weight and durability advantages), water–Al PHPs have not been extensively investigated because noncondensable H2 gas is generated during Al–water reactions at high temperatures, stopping the flow in PHPs and degrading the thermal performance. In this study, a nontoxic micro-nano surface treatment method that is cheaper and simpler than the only reported method for water–Al PHPs was applied to the internal surface of an Al PHP. This prevented H2 gas production by forming Al(OH)3, thereby eliminating possible reaction sites on the surface. The internal two-phase flows, which significantly affected the thermal performance of PHPs, were compared using a flow visualization technique. The dry-out region gradually expanded in the original PHP with increasing operation time. In contrast, the modified surface PHP exhibited flow regeneration, preventing dry-out, as well as a thermal resistance 45.8% lower than that of the original surface PHP. Further, the critical heat flux of the PHP remained at 4.57 W/cm2 with the modified surface. Therefore, the proposed method improved the performance and durability of water–Al PHPs.

Effect of filling ratio, number of loops, and transverse distance on the performance of pulsating heat pipe in a microchannel heat sink

In this study, three-dimensional modeling of a pulsating heat pipe is carried out, and the effect of physical and geometrical parameters such as filling ratio (FR), transverse distance (Z), and the number of loops (N) on its performance is investigated. In this study, it is assumed that the heat pipe is embedded in the microchannel heat sink, and its boundary condition is the thermal condition in the microchannel heat sink. The volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase flow model is used in the current numerical analysis. For the PHP, four different filling ratios (FR = 40, 50, 60, 70%), four transverse distances (Z = 2, 5, 8, 18 mm), and four numbers of loops (N = 1, 2, 3, 4) are considered, and the results will be compared with each other. It is shown that PHP with FR = 60% has the best performance. Also, comparing different values of transverse distance, Z = 18 mm has the lowest thermal resistance. The results show that by embedding a 4-loop PHP, the thermal resistance of MCHS decrease from 0.0268 to 0.0221 K/W, which indicates a 21.27% increase in the thermal performance of the microchannel heat sink compared to the basic design (without PHP).

Experimental investigation on the ethane pulsating heat pipe under asymmetric heating

A three-dimensional cylindrical copper pulsating heat pipe (PHP) with ethane as the working fluid is designed. Experiments are conducted to study the thermal performance of the ethane PHP under the asymmetric heating mode. The evaporation section is divided into two parts: the left part and the right part. The left and right evaporators are provided with different heat inputs to study the temperature oscillation and heat transfer performance. Three cases are carefully studied: no heat input on the left evaporator, the fixed heat input on the left evaporator, and the fixed total heat input. Experiments are also conducted on the PHP operated in the temperature range of −100 ∼ −20 °C. Results demonstrate that when no heating on the left evaporator, the minimum right heat input to form the circulating flow is 40 W. The maximum allowable heat flux is 88419.41 W/m2, which is the 200 W heat input. When there is no heating on the left evaporator, as the heat input on the right side increases, the temperature oscillation experiences: small oscillation, severe fluctuation, stable operation, slight fluctuation, stable operation, and intermittent fluctuation. The heating on the left evaporator relieves the stagnation caused by the movement lag of the working fluid and promotes the flow motion. When the total heat input is fixed, the overall thermal resistance of the PHP is little influenced by the exchange of the heat input of the left and right evaporators, instead, it is decided by the amount of the total heat input. The decrement of the working temperature improves the amplitude of the temperature oscillation but also results in the degradation of the thermal performance of the PHP. The optimal working temperature is discovered to be −40 °C.

Comparative analysis of CLPHP working with binary mixtures in different concentrations

The advanced technologies in design and manufacturing of electronic components have resulted considerable heat flux through component miniaturization. For highly performing microelectronic devices production, thermal management has the priority. Other applications also like material science, fabrication technology, solar applications etc. which directly impact cost, reliability and performance. When it comes to overcome these problems efficient cooling approaches development and use will come into play. The best solution for this is Pulsating heat Pipe (PHP). A simple PHP is a two-phase heat transfer device consists of a tube with a suitable working fluid, along with an evaporator (heating)section, adiabatic section and a condenser (cooling)section. In the present work multi turn Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe (CLPHP) is chosen with capillary dimensions. The experimentation is carried out with different working fluids viz. water, water-based mixtures (75%-25%) at different volumetric fill ratios 50%,60% and 75%. The heat inputs of20W, 40 W, 60 W, 80 W, 100 W applied. At various heat inputs for all the working fluids the variation of thermal resistance is plotted and observed that upon increasing heat input, thermal resistance of fluid decreases. Comparative study is also presented for same experimental setup when the binary mixtures are considered in 50%-50% as mixture concentration. This gives the better understanding of Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe performance when operated at different fill ratios and concentrations for different working fluids considered.

Influence of Cooling Water Flow Rate on Start and Heat Transfer Performance of Pulsating Heat Pipe at Different Inclination Angles

Pulsating heat pipe (PHP) is an efficient heat transfer technology applied in the fields of heat dissipation and energy utilization. There are many factors affecting the heat transfer of PHP, including working fluid, filling ratio, inclination angle, etc. The cooling capacity of the cooling water system at the condensing section to the working fluid is also an important factor affecting the starting and operating of PHP. The research on PHP at different cooling water flow rates is of great significance for enhancing the operating performance. An experimental investigation of starting and running performance is carried out on a closed loop PHP with ultrapure water under different inclination angles of 90°, 60° and 30°. The starting and heat transfer performance of PHP with a filling ratio of 50% is obtained by adjusting the heat input in the range of 30–210 W at different cooling water flow rates of 6.7 g/s, 9.7 g/s and 13.9 g/s. The temperature and heat transfer resistance are used for analyzing the heat transfer performance. The results show that the starting mode, initial pulsating temperature and different heat transfer effects are brought about by different cooling water flow rates. It is observed that the cooling water flow rate has no obvious influence on the starting mode of PHP and that the starting mode of PHP is temperature progressive, starting with the increase in cooling water flow rates at a heating input of about 30 W. The influence of cooling water flow rates on the heat transfer performance of PHP is affected in a different way by inclination angles. The heat transfer performance of PHP with an inclination angle of 90° is similar at 6.7 g/s, 9.7 g/s and 13.9 g/s but, under the condition of 60° and 30°, the heat transfer resistance drops within a certain range effectively with an increasing cooling water flow rate from 6.7 g/s to 9.7 g/s and the heat transfer performance does not change significantly with the cooling water flow rate increasing to 13.9 g/s. Thus, there is an optimal value for the cooling water flow rate during the operating of PHP. The inclination angle also has an important effect on the temperature pulsating, and the temperature of PHP affected by gravity is stable with an inclination angle of 90°. However, the reduced influence of gravity on the backflow of the working fluid drops when the inclination angle decreases from 90° to 30°, and the wall temperature increases due to local overheating when the high heat input occurs.

Lorenz-like equation of two-phase flow in a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe

The pulsating heat transfer characteristics of pulsating heat pipes are often obtained through a large number of experiments and numerical simulations, and the results have certain errors and uncertainties. In order to deal with this situation, the theoretical model of pulsating heat pipe was studied. Based on the governing equation of a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe with two-phase flow containing latent heat, the theoretical model of Lorenz-like equation was derived firstly, and the variation rules of chaotic characteristic such as attractor and Lyapunov index were obtained. On the basis, the parameters of a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe were optimized. The results show that the model of a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe approach to chaos when the Rayleigh number reaches about 3, and the chaos characteristic increases gradually with the increase of heating power. At the same time, the optimal structure parameters and liquid filling rate of a single closed loop pulsating heat pipe under specific conditions were predicted, which provides a theoretical basis for further exploring the optimal heat transfer performance of pulsating heat pipe.

Investigation into the effects of passive check valves on the thermal performance of pulsating heat pipes

A passive check valve without a subsidiary channel that effectively increases the thermal performance of pulsating heat pipes (PHPs) is proposed. To realize this, topology optimization is employed to maximize the diodicity (Di) of the check valve. The proposed passive check valve consists of a pair of hook-shaped structures and has a Di value of 2.2. PHPs with overall dimensions of 53.5×80×1.5 mm3 are fabricated to investigate the effects of the passive check valve on the thermal performance and the flow behaviors of PHPs. A ten-turn closed-loop serpentine square channel with a height and an average width of 0.6 mm and 2 mm is engraved on a silicon plate and then covered with a glass plate for flow visualization. A total of twenty passive check valves are implemented into the entire channel at the locations where the condenser section and the adiabatic section meet. HFE-7000 is used as the working fluid and the filling ratio is fixed at 48% by volume. The experimental results on PHPs with the single-diameter channel show that the proposed passive check valves significantly improve the thermal performance of PHPs: 48% and 81% reduction in the thermal resistance in the vertical orientation and the horizontal orientation, respectively. Also, the experimental results on PHPs with the dual-diameter channel show that the passive check valves effectively improve the thermal performance over the wide operating range regardless of the orientation of PHPs: 33% and 34% reduction in the thermal resistance in the vertical orientation and the horizontal orientation, respectively. It is found through high-speed photography that this enhanced performance occurs because the passive check valves significantly increase the time-averaged volumetric fraction of vapor in the condenser section by 5 times from 0.09 to 0.45. This stems from the fact that the passive check valves effectively make the working fluid flow 3.5 times more preferentially in one direction over the other.

Experimental investigation on thermal performance of pulsating heat pipe by using Dowtherm – A

Experimental investigation on thermal performance of pulsating heat pipe by using Dowtherm – A

Experimental investigation and a new predictive tool for thermal performance of pulsating heat pipes

Experimental investigation and a new predictive tool for thermal performance of pulsating heat pipes

Local heat flux estimation inside tubes through conjugate gradient method with adjoint operator: application to the pulsating heat pipes case

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to apply the conjugate gradient (CG) method, together with the adjoint operator (AO) to the pulsating heat pipe problem, including some quite interesting experimental results. The CG method, together with the AO, was able to estimate the unknown functions more efficiently than the other techniques presented in this paper. The estimation of local heat transfer coefficients, rather than the global ones, in pulsating heat pipes is a relatively new subject and presenting a robust, efficient and self-regularized inverse tool to estimate it, supported also by some experimental results, is the main purpose of this paper. To also increase the visibility and the general use of the paper to the heat transfer community, the authors include, as supplemental material, all numerical and experimental data used in this paper.Design/methodology/approachThe approach was established on the solution of the inverse heat conduction problem in the wall by using as starting data the temperature measurements on the outer surface. The procedure is based on the CG method with AO. The here proposed approach was first verified adopting synthetic data and then it was validated with real cases regarding pulsating heat pipes.FindingsAn original fast methodology to estimate local convective heat flux is proposed. The procedure has been validated both numerically and experimentally. The procedure has been compared to other classical methods presenting some peculiar benefits.Practical implicationsThe approach is suitable for pulsating heat pipes performance evaluation because these devices present a local heat flux distribution characterized by an important variation both in time and in space as a result of the complex flow patterns that are generated in this type of devices.Originality/valueThe procedure here proposed shows these benefits: it affords a general model of the heat conduction problem that is effortlessly customized for the particular case, it can be applied also to large datasets and it presents reduced computational expense.

Experimental Study of Pulsating Heat Pipes Filled with Nanofluids under the Irradiation of Solar Simulator

Developing renewable energy technologies, especially solar technology, is of vital importance to cope with increasing energy consumption. The existing solar thermal systems have the disadvantages of capturing solar energy inefficiently and needing additional pumping power to circulate the working fluid. A concept of a direct absorption pump-free solar thermal system that combines the advantages of nanoparticles and pulsating heat pipes (PHP) is proposed in this work. The effects of a variety of parameters including nanoparticle types, nanoparticle concentration, and nanofluid filling rate on the performance of PHP were studied. It was found that PHP has the best filling rate (80–90%) making the best heat transfer performance and minimizing the thermal resistance. The concentration of nanoparticles affects the input power of the pulsating heat pipe and thus the operation of the PHP. The nanofluid with relatively low concentration cannot absorb enough solar energy to drive the PHP to operate normally. Experimental research shows that the new solar thermal system can absorb solar energy efficiently and transfer the heat into the targeted area spontaneously, which may be an approach for future solar thermal utilization.