THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF SINTERED COPPER WICK HEAT PIPE USINGWATER-BASED HYBRID NANOFLUIDS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Relatively stable titania and silica-distilled water-based hybrid nanofluids, along with surfactants, are proven to be more efficient in thermal performance enhancement of heat pipes which are used for efficient cooling in electronic industry. In the current research, sintered copper wick heat pipe is utilized due to its high level of capillary action and low thermal resistance of copper wick. In this article, the vertically-mounted copper sintered heat pipe containing hybrid nanofluids is investigated to measure the wall temperature, as well as thermal resistance through force convection. The experimentation was carried out at heat loads of 4 W, 8 W, 12 W, 16 W, and 20 W by using water, titania-distilled water nanofluids, and a titania-silica/distilled water hybrid nanofluid filled in heat pipe in order to compare the results. Maximum reduction in average vapor temperature of a titania-silica hybrid nanofluid filled heat pipe and a titaniadistilled water nanofluid filled heat pipe was observed to be 35.74% and 31.10%, as compared to a water filled heat pipe at 20 W, respectively. The maximum decrement in thermal resistance of a titania-silica/distilled water hybrid nanofluid filled heat pipe and a titania-distilled water nanofluid was observed to be 30.66% and 17.33% in comparison with water-based filled heat pipe at 8 W, respectively. The highest enhancement in the heat transfer coefficient of a titania-silica hybrid nanofluid filled heat pipe and a titania-distilled water nanofluid filled heat pipe was 29.73% and 16.21% compared to water filled heat pipe at 8 W, respectively. The usage of hybrid nanofluids greatly decreases the wall temperature and thermal resistance of a copper sintered heat pipe as compared to a nanofluid and water filled heat pipe.