Heat Transfer Performance of a Multi-heat Pipe Using Graphene Oxide/Water Nanofluid

Abstract

A multi-heat pipe is a device for heat transmission. It is composed of a heating section, a cooling section and an adiabatic section. The heating and cooling sections are the same and both are connected by four circular parallel tubes. This experimental study is performed to investigate heat transfer performance of a multi-heat pipe in the vertical orientation using pure water and GO (graphene oxide)/water nanofluid. GO/water nanofluids were synthesized by the modified Hummers method with 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.15%, and 0.2% volume concentrations. The thermal performance has been investigated with varying heat flux in the range of 10-30 W and 100% fill charge ratio. Wall temperature, thermal resistance, and heat transfer coefficient of the heat pipe are measured and compared with those for the heat pipe using pure water. The experimental results show that the evaporator wall temperature with GO nanofluid is lower than that of the base fluid. Also, the heat pipe that charged with nanofluids showed lower thermal resistance compared with pure water. Heat transfer enhancement is caused by suspended nanoparticles and is pronounced with the increase in particle volume fraction.