Influence of alumina nanoparticle shape on a nanofluid based flat - plate solar collector efficiency

Solar collectors convert solar radiation into heat and transfer the heat to a medium. Flat-plate solarcollectors (FPSC) are the most common and cost effective devices for exploiting solar energy. However, thesesystems suffer from low efficiency due to the poor thermo-physical properties of working fluid. Nanofluid wouldenhance heat transfer properties of the working fluid. This can lead to the efficiency enhancement in a solarcollector. In this study, we use thermo physical properties of nanofluid (alumina nanoparticles in EG/water) suchas thermal conductivity, viscosity, density and specific heat in order to determine heat transfer performance andefficiency in an EPSC. The effect of nanoparticle shape has been investigated theoretically on efficiency in anEPSC. It is observed that brick shape nanoparticles lead the highest efficiency in comparison with other shapessuch as cylinders, platelets, and blades. In addition, the results show that in low concentration of nanoparticles thetheoretical model has a good agreement with experimental results

کلیدواژه ها:

Thermo-physical properties ، Flat - Plate Solar collector ، Nanofluid ، solar collector Efficiency