Experimental investigation of silver nano-fluid on heat pipe thermal performance

Nano-fluid is employed as the working medium for a conventional 211 mu m, wide x 217 mu m deep grooved circular heat pipe. The nano-fluid used in this study is an aqueous solution of 35 nm diameter silver nano-particles. The experiment was performed to measure the temperature distribution and to compare the heat pipe thermal resistance using nano-fluid and DI-water. The tested nano-particle concentrations ranged from 1 mg/l to 100 mg/l. The condenser section of the heat pipe was attached to a heat sink that was cooled by water supplied from a constant-temperature bath maintained at 40 degrees C. At a same charge volume, the measured nano-fluid filled heat pipe temperature distribution demonstrated that the thermal resistance decreased 10-80% compared to DI-water at an input power of 30-60 W. The measured results also show that the thermal resistances of the heat pipe decrease as the silver nano-particle size and concentration increase. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.