The Study of Novel Self-Rewetting Fluid Application to Loop Heat Pipe

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop SRF formulations for LHP performance enhancement. In this paper, the solute of SRF is prepared, and butanol and its isomer, 2-butanol, are selected. In this paper, concentrations of the 2-butanol aqueous solution (10%, 15%, and 20%) plus the butanol 6% aqueous solution were used to measure the surface tension of four different formulations of SRF and water. It was found that the higher the solute concentration became, the stronger the Marangoni effect was, and the more obvious the surface tension change of the 2-butanol 20% aqueous solution was. Water, the butanol 6% aqueous solution and the 2-butanol 20% aqueous solution were filled into LHP respectively, and the heat transfer performance was measured. The 2-Butanol 20% aqueous solution improved LHP performance by about three times compared with water, and the lowest total thermal resistance was only 1/4 that of water. Therefore, the 2-butanol 20% SRF aqueous solution is an ideal formula for improving the LHP heat transfer performance.

Keywords

• 2-butanol
• self-rewetting fluid (SRF)
• loop heat pipe (LHP)
• formula