Thermo-Hydraulic Performance Analysis of Fe 3 O 4 -Water Nanofluid-Based Flat-Plate Solar Collectors

Mehak Shafiq (), Muhammad Farooq, Waqas Javed, George Loumakis and Don McGlinchey ()
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Mehak Shafiq: School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK
Muhammad Farooq: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 54890, Pakistan
Waqas Javed: School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK
George Loumakis: School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK
Don McGlinchey: School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-21

Abstract: A cost-effective alternative for lowering carbon emissions from building heating is the use of flat-plate solar collectors (FPSCs). However, low thermal efficiency is a significant barrier to their effective implementation. Favorable nanofluids’ thermophysical properties have the potential to increase FPSCs’ effectiveness. Accordingly, this study evaluates the performance of an FPSC operating with Fe 3 O 4 -water nanofluid in terms of its thermo-hydraulic characteristics with operating parameters ranging from 303 to 333 K for the collector inlet temperature, 0.0167 to 0.05 kg/s for the mass flow rate, and 0.1 to 2% for nanoparticles’ volume fraction, respectively. The numerical findings demonstrated that under identical operating conditions, increasing the volume fraction up to 2% resulted in an improvement of 4.28% and 8.90% in energy and energy efficiency, respectively. However, a 13.51% and 7.93% rise in the friction factor and pressure drop, respectively, have also been observed. As a result, the performance index (PI) criteria were used to determine the optimal volume fraction (0.5%) of Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles, which enhanced the convective heat transfer, exergy efficiency, and energy efficiency by 12.90%, 4.33%, and 2.64%, respectively.

Keywords: Fe 3 O 4; energy and exergy; flat-plate solar collector; friction factor; pressure drop; performance index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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