Thermal Performance of an Al2O3–Water Nanofluid Pulsating Heat Pipe

Abstract

A numerical study is performed to investigate the effects of nanofluids on the heat transfer performance of a pulsating heat pipe (PHP). Pure water is employed as the base fluid while Al2O3 with two different particle sizes, 38.4 and 47 nm, is used as nanoparticle. Different parameters including displacement of liquid slug, vapor temperature and pressure, liquid slug temperature distribution, as well as sensible and latent heat transfer in evaporator and condenser are calculated numerically and compared with the ones for pure water as working fluid. The results show that nanofluid has significant effect on heat transfer enhancement of the system and with increasing volume fraction and decreasing particles diameter the enhancement intensifies.