Heat Transfer in a Loop Heat Pipe Using Fe₂NiO₄-H₂O Nanofluid

¹ Centre for Fluid Dynamics (CFD), College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Putrajaya Campus, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000 Kajang, Malaysia
² School of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Engineering Campus, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia

^a Corresponding author: prem@uniten.edu.my

Abstract

Nanofluids are stable suspensions of nano fibers and particles in fluids. Recent investigations show that thermal behavior of these fluids, such as improved thermal conductivity and convection coefficients are superior to those of pure fluid or fluid suspension containing larger size particles. The use of enhanced thermal properties of nanofluids in a loop heat pipe (LHP) for the cooling of computer microchips is the main aim of this study. Thus, the Fe₂NiO₄-H₂O served as the working fluid with nanoparticle mass concentrations ranged from 0 to 3 % in LHP for the heat input range from 20W to 60W was employed. Experimental apparatus and procedures were designed and implemented for measurements of the surface temperature of LHP. Then, a commercial liquid cooling kit of LHP system similar as used in experimental study was installed in real desktop PC CPU cooling system. The test results of the proposed system indicate that the average decrease of 5.75oC (14%) was achieved in core temperatures of desktop PC CPU charged with Fe₂NiO₄-H₂O as compared with pure water under the same operating conditions. The results from this study should find it’s used in many industrial processes in which the knowledge on the heat transfer behavior in nanofluids charged LHP is of uttermost importance.