Investigation of thermal performance of a copper heat pipe with TiO2 nanoparticles

The heat transfer ability of a device can be altered by changing the heat transport properties of a fluid thus helping in miniaturization of electronic devices. In the present work the thermal conductivity of a copper heat pipe has been increased with titanium oxide nanofluid. The titanium oxide nanofluids are prepared using the two step process by sol gel technique followed by ultasonication. There was no sedimentation of the nanoparticles for 15 days showing high stability of nanofluid. TiO2 nanoparticles with an average diameter of 8.47nm was produced by sol gel method. The volume fraction of the nanoparticles were fixed and input power conditions were varied to study the heat transfer rate.