Experimental Investigation on CuO/Water Nanofluid Effect on the Heat Transfer Rate of Heat Pipe Network

In this study, a new configuration of heat pipes as Heat Pipe Network is introduced. Here, the heat pipe network is designed, constructed, and put under the performance assessment. This heat pipe network consists of 4 vertical heat pipes connected to evaporator collector from bottom and condenser collector from top. In order to investigate the effect of nano-fluids on the thermal efficiency and thermal resistance of heat pipes network, copper oxide nano-fluids were prepared using a two-step method. Heat pipe network with 50% filling ratio water and copper oxide nano-fluid as working fluid was tested under different heat loads. It is found that the total resistance of heat pipe network using copper oxide nano-fluid with volumetric concentrations of 1%, 3%, and 5% --mixed with water as working fluid-- is reduced to 0.95, 0.84, and 0.75, respectively in comparison with dionized water. Moreover, for 5% volumetric concentration of nano-fluid, thermal efficiency exceed to 80%.