Several investigations have pointed the operation behavior of passive thermal control devices such as loop heat pipes (LHPs) and pulsating heat pipes (PHPs) in the past, which have cleared many points related to their design. However, an interesting aspect related to passive thermal control devices that operated by means of capillary forces to pump the working fluid have gained attention during the last years, which is in regard to the use of nanofluids on such devices. Nanofluids are known as regular fluids with addition of solid nanoparticles with sizes (diameter) below 40 nm, which are used to enhance the working fluid's thermal performance by enhancing its thermal conductivity. Previous works have demonstrated that the liquid's thermal conductivity can be enhanced by 20% if nanoparticles are added on a concentration of 5% by mass. PHPs operate by the dynamics of slug/plug formation removing heat from a high temperature source and dissipating in a low temperature sink and are highly influenced by the bubble critical diameter related to a specific working fluid. Thus, an experimental open loop PHP (OLPHP) was tested with watercopper nanofluid, with an addition of 5% by mass of copper nanoparticles. Improvements on the overall device's operation have been observed when using the nanofluid with lower temperatures, as well as a direct influence on the thermal resistances throughout the PHP. Further analysis has shown that the addition of solid nanoparticle on the working fluid has directly contributed for the improvement of the OLPHP thermal performance.
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