Thermal efficiency comparison: Surface-based solar receivers with conventional fluids and volumetric solar receivers with nanofluids

Seung-Hyun Lee, Tae Jong Choi and Seok Pil Jang

Energy, 2016, vol. 115, issue P1, 404-417

Abstract: This paper reports on a comparative study of the difference in thermal efficiency between surface-based solar receivers (SRs) with conventional base fluids and volumetric solar receivers (VRs) with water-based multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) nanofluids. The analytical solutions for temperature distribution and thermal efficiency of SRs and VRs are theoretically obtained to identify the key engineering parameters that affect the thermal efficiency of both solar receivers. In order to confirm the analytical solutions, we experimentally measured the thermal efficiency of both solar receivers according to the volume fraction and the Peclet Number. Moreover, the experimental results are compared with the analytical solutions. Based on the comparison, we show that the analytical solutions can reasonably estimate the thermal efficiency with respect to the volume fraction and the Peclet number. Furthermore, the analytical and experimental results indicate that the efficiency of both solar receivers are proportional to the volume fraction (ϕ) (not applicable for SRs) and the Peclet number (Pe), while it is inversely proportional to the Nusselt number of heat loss (Nu) and the aspect ratio (AR). Finally, this study systematically demonstrates the nanofluid-based VRs can be achieved higher efficiency compared to the conventional SRs over 10%.

Keywords: Volumetric solar receivers (VRs); Surface solar receivers (SRs); Nanofluids; Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs); Thermal efficiency; Analytical solution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544216312658
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:115:y:2016:i:p1:p:404-417

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2016.09.024

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().