The Experimental Study of the Thermal Performance of Heat Pipe using CuO/Water Nanofluid

This paper presents the enhancement of the thermal performance of a heat pipe charged with nanofluid. The CuO/Water nanofluid served as the working fluid with three concentrations by volume 1g/L, 5g/L and 10g/L in heat pipe. The heat pipe is fabricated by a straight copper tube with an outer diameter 18 mm, thickness 1mm and length of 475 mm. This paper presents a discussion on the effect of various performing parameters by varying different heat inputs as well as fluid concentration as mentioned above. The nanoparticles have observed significant effect on the enhancement of thermal performance of heat pipe by increasing fluid concentration as well as different heat inputs. Experimental results show that at a heating power of 80 W, the optimal thermal conductivity and heat transfer rate for CuO/Water nanofluid heat pipe are 50.46% and 1.75% respectively, which are better than that of pipes using pure water as the working fluid.