Novel solar collector: Evaluating the impact of nanoparticles added to the collector’s working fluid, heat transfer fluid temperature and flow rate

Hassan Fathabadi

Renewable Energy, 2020, vol. 148, issue C, 1165-1173

Abstract: A novel parabolic trough solar collector is presented, it has been built, and the impact of nanoparticles added to the collector’s working fluid, heat transfer fluid (HTF) temperature and HTF flow rate on the collector thermal efficiency is evaluated in theory and practice. In the collector, a two-phase closed thermosiphon (TPCT) heat pipe composed of evaporation and condensation parts has been utilized to capture solar heat. The evaporation part with the length of 240 cm positioned in the center of the collector’s reflector has been coated with selective coating and insulated from environment using twin wall evacuated glass tube. The condensation part with the length of 45 cm located inside a cylindrical manifold thermally insulated using glass wool transfers the vaporization latent heat of vapor existing inside the condensation part to HTF flowing inside the manifold, and heats it. To evaluate the impact of nanoparticles, distilled water and CuO−H2O nanofluid (mixture of distilled water and copper oxide) with the nanoparticles weight percentages of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, 3% and 3.5% have been used as eight working fluids. The novelty and contributions of this research work can be outlined as follows:

Keywords: Solar collector; Nanoparticles; Nanofluid; HTF temperature; HTF flow rate; Thermal efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:148:y:2020:i:c:p:1165-1173

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.10.008

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