Energy and Exergy Analysis of Marquise Shaped Channel Flat Plate Solar Collector Using Al2O3–Water Nanofluid and Water

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahil Arora ◽  
Geleta Fekadu ◽  
Sudhakar Subudhi

The present study deals with the experimental performance of a Marquise shaped channel solar flat-plate collector using Al2O3/water nanofluid and base fluid (pure water). The experimental setup comprises a special type of solar flat plate collector, closed working fluid systems, and the measurement devices. The absorber plate is made of two aluminum plates sandwiched together with Marquise-shaped flow channels. The volume fraction of 0.1% of Al2O3/water nanofluid is used for this study. The various parameters used to investigate performance of the collector energy and exergy efficiency are collector inlet and outlet fluid temperatures, mass flow rate of the fluid, solar radiation, and ambient temperature. The flow rate of nanofluid and water varies from 1 to 5 lpm. The maximum energy efficiencies attained are 83.17% and 59.72%, whereas the maximum exergy efficiencies obtained are 18.73% and 12.29% for the 20 nm—Al2O3/water nanofluids and pure water, respectively, at the flow rate of 3 lpm. These higher efficiencies may be due to the use of nanofluids and the sophisticated design of the absorber plate with the Marquise shaped channel.

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-39
Author(s):  
Ranga Babu J.A. ◽  
Kiran Kumar K. ◽  
Srinivasa Rao S.

Purpose This paper aims to present an analytical investigation of energy and exergy performance on a solar flat plate collector (SFPC) with Cu-CuO/water hybrid nanofluid, Cu/water and CuO/water nanofluids as collector running fluids. Design/methodology/approach Heat transfer characteristics, pressure drop and energy and exergy efficiencies of SFPC working on these nanofluids are investigated and compared. In this study, a comparison is made by varying the mass flow rates and nanoparticle volume concentration. Thermophysical properties of hybrid nanofluids are estimated using distinctive correlations available in the open literature. Then, the influence of these properties on energy and exergy efficiencies of SFPC is discussed in detail. Findings Energy analysis reveals that by introducing the hybrid nanoparticles in water, the thermal conductivity of the working fluid is enhanced by 17.52 per cent and that of the individual constituents is enhanced by 15.72 and 15.35 per cent for Cu/water and CuO/water nanofluids, respectively. This resulted in 2.16 per cent improvement in useful heat gain for hybrid nanofluid and 1.03 and 0.91 per cent improvement in heat gain for Cu/water and CuO/water nanofluids, respectively. In line with the above, the collector efficiency increased by 2.175 per cent for the hybrid nanofluid and 0.93 and 1.05 per cent enhancement for Cu/water and CuO/water nanofluids, respectively. Exergy analysis elucidates that by using the hybrid nanofluid, exergy efficiency is increased by 2.59 per cent, whereas it is 2.32 and 2.18 per cent enhancement for Cu/water and CuO/water nanofluids, respectively. Entropy generation is reduced by 3.31, 2.35 and 2.96 per cent for Cu-CuO/water, Cu/water and CuO/water nanofluids, respectively, as compared to water. Research limitations/implications However, this is associated with a penalty of increment in pressure drop of 2.92, 3.09 and 2.74 per cent for Cu-CuO/water, Cu/water and CuO/water nanofluids, respectively, compared with water. Originality/value It is clear from the analysis that Cu-CuO/water hybrid nanofluids possess notable increment in both energy and exergy efficiencies to use them in SFPCs.


Author(s):  
Himanshu Tyagi ◽  
Patrick Phelan ◽  
Ravi Prasher

Due to its renewable and non-polluting nature solar energy is often used in applications such as electricity generation, thermal heating and chemical processing. The most cost-effective solar heaters are of the “flat-plate” type, but these suffer from relatively low efficiency and outlet temperatures. The present study theoretically investigates the feasibility of using a direct absorption solar receiver (DAR) and compares its performance with that of a typical flat-plate collector. Here a nanofluid—a mixture of water and aluminum nanoparticles—is used as the absorbing medium. A two-dimensional heat transfer analysis was developed in which direct sunlight was incident on a thin flowing film of nanofluid. The effects of absorption and scattering within the nanofluid were accounted for. In order to evaluate the temperature profile and intensity distribution within the nanofluid the energy balance equation and heat transport equation were solved numerically. It was observed that the presence of nanoparticles increases the absorption of incident radiation by more than 9 times over that of pure water. According to the results obtained from this study, under similar operating conditions, the efficiency of a DAR using nanofluid as the working fluid is found to be up to 10% higher (on an absolute basis) than that of a flat-plate collector.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 46-55
Author(s):  
Abbas Sahi Shareef ◽  
Zahraa Basim Abdel-Mohsen

In this paper investigation experimentally the effect of CuO-water and Al2O3/water nanofluids on heat transfer in flat plate solar collector. The volume fraction was used (0.125,0.25 and 0.5) % for flow flow rate of working fluid equal to (1 L/min) and the particles size was 20 nm. The experiments are conducted in Kerbala, Iraq with the latitude of 32.60 N. The result shows that the maximum outlet-inlet temperatures difference obtained at (0.5 vol. %) nanofluid are (16.2 0C) for (Al2O3/water), (15.5 0C) for (CuO/water) nanofluid, and (10.2 0C) for pure water. Also, Al2O3 shows high heat transfer compared to CuO, this lead to improve the performance of the solar fat-plate collector.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Himanshu Tyagi ◽  
Patrick Phelan ◽  
Ravi Prasher

Due to its renewable and nonpolluting nature, solar energy is often used in applications such as electricity generation, thermal heating, and chemical processing. The most cost-effective solar heaters are of the “flat-plate” type, but these suffer from relatively low efficiency and outlet temperatures. The present study theoretically investigates the feasibility of using a nonconcentrating direct absorption solar collector (DAC) and compares its performance with that of a typical flat-plate collector. Here a nanofluid—a mixture of water and aluminum nanoparticles—is used as the absorbing medium. A two-dimensional heat transfer analysis was developed in which direct sunlight was incident on a thin flowing film of nanofluid. The effects of absorption and scattering within the nanofluid were accounted for. In order to evaluate the temperature profile and intensity distribution within the nanofluid, the energy balance equation and heat transport equation were solved numerically. It was observed that the presence of nanoparticles increases the absorption of incident radiation by more than nine times over that of pure water. According to the results obtained from this study, under similar operating conditions, the efficiency of a DAC using nanofluid as the working fluid is found to be up to 10% higher (on an absolute basis) than that of a flat-plate collector. Generally a DAC using nanofluids as the working fluid performs better than a flat-plate collector, however, much better designed flat-plate collectors might be able to match or outperform a nanofluids based DAC under certain conditions.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. Nitsas ◽  
I. P. Koronaki ◽  
L. Prentza

The utilization of solar energy in thermal energy systems was and always be one of the most effective alternative to conventional energy resources. Energy efficiency is widely used as one of the most important parameters in order to evaluate and compare thermal systems including solar collectors. Nevertheless, the first law of thermodynamics is not solely capable of describing the quantitative and qualitative performance of such systems and thus exergy efficiency is used so as to introduce the systems’ quality. In this work, the performance of a flat plate solar collector using water based nanofluids of different nanoparticle types as a working fluid is analyzed theoretically under the climatic conditions in Greece based on the First and Second Law of Thermodynamics. A mathematical model is built and the model equations are solved iteratively in a MATLAB code. The energy and exergy efficiencies as well as the collector losses coefficient for various parameters such as the inlet temperature, the particles concentration and type are determined. Moreover, a dynamic model is built so as to determine the performance of a flat plate collector working with nanofluids and the useful energy that can be stored in a water tank. The exergy destruction and exergy leakage are determined for a typical day in summer during which high temperatures and solar intensity values are common for the Greek climate.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prakasam Michael Joseph stalin ◽  
Thottipalayam Vellingri Arjunan ◽  
Mohammed Abdulrahman Almeshaal ◽  
Palaniappan Murugesan ◽  
Balaramachandran Prabu ◽  
...  

Abstract Thermodynamic performance analysis is carried out on a flat plate solar thermal collector utilizing single and hybrid nanofluids. As heat transfer fluids, Fe2O4/water, Zn-Fe2O4/water hybrid nanofluids, and water are used, and its performance are compared based on the energy and exergy transfer rate. The thermo-physical properties are evaluated by regression polynomial model for all the working fluids. Developed codes in MATLAB solve the collector's thermal model iteratively, energy and exergetic performance are evaluated. The system was then subjected to parametric investigation and optimization for variations in fluid flow rate, temperatures, and concentrations of nanoparticles. The findings show that utilizing Zn-Fe2O4/water hybrid nanofluids with a particle concentration of 0.5 percent enhanced the solar collector's thermal performance by 6.6% while using Fe2O4/water nanofluids raised the collector's thermal performance by 7.83% when compared to water as the working fluid. While hybrid nanofluids give a better thermal alternative than water and single nanofluids, they have also produced a 5.36% increase in exergetic efficiency and an enhancement of 8.24 percent when used with Fe2O4/water nanofluids.


Author(s):  
Milad Kelidari ◽  
Ali Jabari Moghadam

Different-radius of curvature pipes are experimentally investigated using distilled water and Fe3O4–water nanofluid with two different values of the nanoparticle volume fraction as the working fluids. The mass flow rate is approximately varied from 0.2 to 0.7 kg/min (in the range of laminar flow); the wall heat flux is nearly kept constant. The experimental results reveal that utilizing the nanofluid increases the convection heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number in comparison to water; these outcomes are also observed when the radius of curvature is decreased and/or the mass flow rate is increased (equivalently, a rise in Dean number). The resultant pressure gradient is, however, intensified by an increase in the volume concentration of nanoparticles and/or by a rise in Dean number. For any particular working fluid, there is an optimum mass flow rate, which maximizes the system efficiency. The overall efficiency can be introduced to include hydrodynamic as well as thermal characteristics of nanofluids in various geometrical conditions. For each radius of curvature, the same overall efficiency may be achieved for two magnitudes of nanofluid volume concentration.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 1760018 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Pandiaraj ◽  
A. Gnanavelbabu ◽  
P. Saravanan

Metallic fluids like CuO, Al2O3, ZnO, SiO2 and TiO2 nanofluids were widely used for the development of working fluids in flat plate heat pipes except magnesium oxide (MgO). So, we initiate our idea to use MgO nanofluids in flat plate heat pipe as a working fluid material. MgO nanopowders were synthesized by wet chemical method. Solid state characterizations of synthesized nanopowders were carried out by Ultraviolet Spectroscopy (UV), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques. Synthesized nanopowders were prepared as nanofluids by adding water and as well as water/ethylene glycol as a binary mixture. Thermal conductivity measurements of prepared nanofluids were studied using transient hot-wire apparatus. Response surface methodology based on the Box–Behnken design was implemented to investigate the influence of temperature (30–60[Formula: see text]C), particle fraction (1.5–4.5 vol.%), and solution pH (4–12) of nanofluids as the independent variables. A total of 17 experiments were accomplished for the construction of second-order polynomial equations for target output. All the influential factors, their mutual effects and their quadratic terms were statistically validated by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimum stability and thermal conductivity of MgO nanofluids with various temperature, volume fraction and solution pH were predicted and compared with experimental results. The results revealed that increase in particle fraction and pH of MgO nanofluids at certain points would increase thermal conductivity and become stable at nominal temperature.


Author(s):  
V. R. Bhore ◽  
S. B. Thombre

The present study deals with comparison of experimentally determined performance characteristics of solar flat plate collectors fitted with novel designs of absorber plate involving non-circular risers with integral fins and operating under natural circulation mode. The main flow passages considered were square, triangular and semicircular in cross section. One standard solar flat plate collector with circular risers was also tested simultaneously for direct comparison. The test results indicate that the absorber fitted with the triangular sectioned risers yields the best performance in terms of the efficiency (63%), and the buoyancy induced flow per unit area (76 kg/hr-m2) from amongst the collectors investigated. It is followed by the absorbers fitted with the semicircular and square sectioned risers respectively. The standard solar flat plate collector is found to yield the lowest values i.e. 46 % and 40 kg/hr-m2 respectively.


2014 ◽  
Vol 592-594 ◽  
pp. 2404-2408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunita Meena ◽  
Chandan Swaroop Meena ◽  
V.K. Bajpai

Solar energy collectors are a special kind of heat exchangers that transform solar radiation energy to internal energy of the transport medium. The major component of any solar system is the solar collector. This is a device which absorbs the incoming solar radiation, converts it into heat, and transfers this heat to a fluid (usually air, water, or oil) flowing through the collector. The measurement of the flat plate collector performance is the collector efficiency. The collector efficiency is the ratio of the useful energy gain to the incident solar energy over a particular period of time. The useful energy gain is strongly depends on the collector efficiency factor and this factor directly influenced by few parameters i.e. the centre to centre distance of absorber tubes W , thickness of absorber plate δ and heat loss coefficient UL. This paper has been focused on the relation between W with collector efficiency factor of serpentine tube solar flat-plate collector. This study shows that if we increase the W then Fˈ decreases.


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