scholarly journals Numerical Analysis for Thermal Performance of a Photovoltaic Thermal Solar Collector with SiO2-Water Nanofluid

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 2223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Chamkha ◽  
Fatih Selimefendigil

Numerical analysis of a photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) unit with SiO 2 -water nanofluid was performed. The coupled heat conduction equations within the layers and convective heat transfer equations within the channel of the module were solved by using the finite volume method. Effects of various particle shapes, solid volume fractions, water inlet temperature, solar irradiation and wind speed on the thermal and PV efficiency of the unit were analyzed. Correlation for the efficiencies were obtained by using radial basis function neural networks. Cylindrical shape particles were found to give best performance in terms of efficiency enhancements. Total efficiency enhances by about 7.39% at the highest volume fraction with cylindrical shape particles. Cylindrical shape particle gives 3.95% more enhancement as compared to spherical ones for the highest value of solid particle volume fraction. Thermal and total efficiency enhance for higher values of solid particle volume fraction, solar irradiation and lower values of convective heat transfer coefficient and inlet temperature. The performance characteristics of solar PV-thermal unit with radial basis function artificial neural network are found to be in excellent agreement with the results obtained from computational fluid dynamics modeling.

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jahar Sarkar

The theoretical analyses of the double-tube gas cooler in transcritical carbon dioxide refrigeration cycle have been performed to study the performance improvement of gas cooler as well as CO2 cycle using Al2O3, TiO2, CuO and Cu nanofluids as coolants. Effects of various operating parameters (nanofluid inlet temperature and mass flow rate, CO2 pressure and particle volume fraction) are studied as well. Use of nanofluid as coolant in double-tube gas cooler of CO2 cycle improves the gas cooler effectiveness, cooling capacity and COP without penalty of pumping power. The CO2 cycle yields best performance using Al2O3-H2O as a coolant in double-tube gas cooler followed by TiO2-H2O, CuO-H2O and Cu-H2O. The maximum cooling COP improvement of transcritical CO2 cycle for Al2O3-H2O is 25.4%, whereas that for TiO2-H2O is 23.8%, for CuO-H2O is 20.2% and for Cu-H2O is 16.2% for the given ranges of study. Study shows that the nanofluid may effectively use as coolant in double-tube gas cooler to improve the performance of transcritical CO2 refrigeration cycle.


Author(s):  
Qiang Li ◽  
Yimin Xuan ◽  
Feng Yu ◽  
Junjie Tan

An experimental investigation was performed to study the heat transfer and flow features of Cu-water nanofluids (Cu particles with 26 nm diameter) in a submerged jet impingement cooling system. Three particular nozzle-to-heated surface distances (2, 4 and 6 mm) and four particle volume fractions (1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5% and 3.0%) are involved in the experiment. The experimental results reveal that the suspended nanoparticles increase the heat transfer performance of the base liquid in the jet impingement cooling system. Within the range of experimental parameters considered, it has been found that highest surface heat transfer coefficients can be achieved using a nozzle-to-surface distance of 4 mm and the nanofluid with 3.0% particle volume fraction. In addition, the experiments show that the system pressure drop of the dilute nanofluids is almost equal to that of water under the same entrance velocity.


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 469-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hosseinali Soltanipour ◽  
Parisa Choupani ◽  
Iraj Mirzaee

This paper presents a numerical investigation of heat transfer augmentation using internal longitudinal ribs and ?-Al2O3/ water nanofluid in a stationary curved square duct. The flow is assumed 3D, steady, laminar, and incompressible with constant properties. Computations have been done by solving Navier-Stokes and energy equations utilizing finite volume method. Water has been selected as the base fluid and thermo- physical properties of ?- Al2o3/ water nanofluid have been calculated using available correlations in the literature. The effects of Dean number, rib size and particle volume fraction on the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop have been examined. Results show that nanoparticles can increase the heat transfer coefficient considerably. For any fixed Dean number, relative heat transfer rate (The ratio of the heat transfer coefficient in case the of ?- Al2o3/ water nanofluid to the base fluid) increases as the particle volume fraction increases; however, the addition of nanoparticle to the base fluid is more useful for low Dean numbers. In the case of water flow, results indicate that the ratio of heat transfer rate of ribbed duct to smooth duct is nearly independent of Dean number. Noticeable heat transfer enhancement, compared to water flow in smooth duct, can be achieved when ?-Al2O3/ water nanofluid is used as the working fluid in ribbed duct.


Author(s):  
Weerapun Duangthongsuk ◽  
Somchai Wongwises

Heat transfer performance and flow characteristics of aqueous TiO2 nanofluids with particle volume fraction of 0.2% flowing under turbulent flow regime are investigated. The test section is a 1.5 m long counter-flow double tube heat exchanger. Two different nanofluids are used as working fluids at the same concentration. Firstly, TiO2 nanoparticles with mean diameters of 21 nm mixed with small amount of CTAB (about 0.01%) named “SAM 1”. Secondly, VP Disp. W740x provided by DEGUSSA AG Company is used and called “SAM 2”. The latter mixture is composed of TiO2 nanoparticle with average diameter of 21 nm dispersed in water. The pH values of nanofluid SAM 1 and SAM 2 are 7.6 and 7.5, respectively. The heat transfer performance and friction characteristics of two samples of nanofluid were presented. In addition, the Nusselt numbers predicted from the published correlation for nanofluids are compared with the present experimental data.


Author(s):  
Fatih Selimefendigil ◽  
Hakan F. Öztop

In the present study, laminar forced convective nanofluid flow over a backward-facing step was numerically investigated. The bottom wall downstream of the step was flexible, and finite element method was used to solve the governing equations. The numerical simulation was performed for a range of Reynolds number (between 25 and 250), elastic modulus of the flexible wall (between 104 and 106), and solid particle volume fraction (between 0 and 0.035). It was observed that the flexibility of the bottom wall results in the variation of the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics for the backward-facing step problem. As the value of Reynolds number and solid particle volume fraction enhances, local and average heat transfer rates increase. At the highest value of Reynolds number, heat transfer rate is higher for the case with the wall having lowest value of elastic modulus whereas the situation is reversed for other value of Reynolds number. Average Nusselt number reduces by about 9.21% and increases by about 6.1% for the flexible wall with the lowest elastic modulus as compared to a rigid bottom wall for Reynolds number of 25 and 250. Adding nano-additives to the base fluid results in higher heat transfer enhancements. Average heat transfer rates enhance by about 35.72% and 35.32% at the highest solid particle volume fraction as compared to nanofluid with solid volume fraction of 0.01 for the case with wall at the lowest and highest elastic modulus. A polynomial type correlation for the average Nusselt number along the flexible hot wall was proposed, which is dependent on the elastic modulus and solid particle volume fraction. The results of this study are useful for many thermal engineering problems where flow separation and reattachment coupled with heat transfer occur. Control of convective heat transfer for such configurations with wall flexibility and nanoparticle inclusion to the base fluid was aimed in this study to find the effects of various pertinent parameters for heat transfer enhancement.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruifeng CAO ◽  
Taotao WANG ◽  
Yuxuan ZHANG ◽  
Hui WANG

Improved heat transfer in composites consisting of guar gel matrix and randomly distributed glass microspheres is extensively studied to predict the effective thermal conductivity of composites using the finite element method. In the study, the proper and probabilistic three-dimensional random distribution of microspheres in the continuous matrix is automatically generated by a simple and efficient random sequential adsorption algorithm which is developed by considering the correlation of three factors including particle size, number of particles, and particle volume fraction controlling the geometric configuration of random packing. Then the dependences of the effective thermal conductivity of composite materials on some important factors are investigated numerically, including the particle volume fraction, the particle spatial distribution, the number of particles, the nonuniformity of particle size, the particle dispersion morphology and the thermal conductivity contrast between particle and matrix. The related numerical results are compared with theoretical predictions and available experimental results to assess the validity of the numerical model. These results can provide good guidance for the design of advanced microsphere reinforced composite materials.


Author(s):  
G. Bhaskaran ◽  
H. A. Mohammed ◽  
N. H. Shuaib

A numerical study is performed to study the effects of using various types of nanofluids on a triangular shaped microchannel heat exchanger (MCHE). The performance of an aluminum MCHE with various types of nanofluids such as Al2O3, CuO, SiO2, Ag and TiO2 and diamond particles with particle volume fraction of 2% using water as base fluid is comprehensively analyzed. The three-dimensional steady, laminar developing flow and conjugate heat transfer of a balanced MCHE were solved using finite volume method. In order to maintain laminar flow in the microchannels, Re number was ranged from 100 to 800. The other parameters tested in this study include the effects of Reynolds number towards the temperature, effectiveness and pressure drop of the MCHE. It is found that nanofluids have improved the temperature profile and heat transfer rate of the MCHE. The increase in pressure drop was minimal while the thermal and hydrodynamic performance of the heat exchanger was enhanced.


Author(s):  
Benjamin Rimbault ◽  
Cong Tam Nguyen ◽  
Nicolas Galanis

The problem of laminar flow and heat transfer of water-based nanofluids inside a 3D-microchannel heat sink was numerically investigated, considering temperature-dependent fluids properties. Results, obtained for the 250–2000 Reynolds number range, show that an important enhancement of surface convective heat transfer coefficient can be achieved by increasing the particle volume fraction. For given Reynolds number and particle fraction, a highest heat transfer enhancement is obtained using CuO-water nanofluid. However, the use of nanofluids considerably increases the wall friction and consequently the pumping power. The ‘heat transferred to fluid/pumping power’ ratio was calculated for nanofluids. For given Reynolds number and particle volume fraction, such a ratio was found lowest for CuO-water nanofluid, while alumina-water nanofluids provide similar results.


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