Laboratory Investigation of Nanofluid-filled Wickless Heat Pipes for a Parabolic Dish Solar Heat Collector
J. Environ. Nanotechnol., Volume 15, No 1 (March 2026) pp. 127-138
Abstract
Solar thermal conversion was achieved by preparing a nanofluid using ethanol and acetone as base fluids and Cu nanoparticles of optimized size (~20 nm) as the additives. The thermophysical properties of the nanofluid were determined at different temperatures, and their temperature-dependent variations were analyzed to assess their potential to enhance the thermal efficiency of wickless heat pipes. The performance of the wickless heat pipe filled with ethanol and acetone as base fluids was evaluated by measuring the heat input and output at the inlet and outlet. Both ethanol and acetone exhibited an optimized filling ratio of 40%. The overall thermal efficiency was then determined, and the efficiency and overall thermal resistance were compared between ethanol- and acetone-filled heat pipes, accounting for radiation-induced heat input over a one-hour daytime interval. Based on the calculations, the minimum and maximum thermal efficiencies were found between the range of 42.30% to 58.48% for Cu-Acetone based nanofluid and for Cu-Ethanol-based nanofluid it was found between the range of 37.83% to 54.01%, which was 4.47% lower than that of Cu- Acetone based nanofluid .The overall thermal resistance was determined to be 0.076 ℃/W for the acetone heat pipe and 0.074 ℃/W for the ethanol heat pipe.
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