Review on relation of heat pipes with nanotechnology for heat transfer enhancement

Heat pipes are promising heat removal devices widely used in a variety of fields ranging from thermal management of electronic components to terrestrial and aerospace applications. Their working principle, phase change of a working fluid, makes them superior to other conventional cooling methods. Heat pipes have been commercially available since the mid of 1960's. Only in the past few years the electronics industries have embraced heat pipes as reliable, cost-effective solutions for high end cooling applications. This paper presents a detailed review of the materials, applications and performance of heat pipes using nanofluid as working medium. The first section reviews the heat pipes which are operating with nanofluid as working fluid. This section deals with nanofluid of different nanoparticles. The second section reviews heat pipes coated with different types of nanoparticles and third section reviews the performance of heat pipes with nanoparticle coated wick.