Effect of structural character of gold nanoparticles in nanofluid on heat pipe thermal performance

Nanofluid is employed as working medium for conventional circular heat pipe. The nanofluid used in the present study is an aqueous solution of various-sized gold nanoparticles. The thermal resistance of heat pipe with nanofluid or with DI water was measured. The heat pipe was designed as a heat spreader for CPU in a notebook or a desktop PC. At a same charge volume, there is a significant reduction in thermal resistance of heat pipe with nanofluid as compared with DI water. The measured results also show that the thermal resistance of a vertical meshed heat pipe varies with the size of gold nanoparticles.