Finite Element Simulation of Forced Convection in a Flat Plate Solar Collector: Influence of Nanofluid with Double Nanoparticles

Abstract

This work compares heat loss characteristics across a riser pipe of a flat plate solar collector filled water based nanofluid of double nanoparticles (alumina and copper) with single nanoparticle (alumina). Also this study compares heat transfer phenomena among four nanofluids namely water-copper oxide, water-alumina, water-copper and water-silver nanofluids. Comparisons are obtained by numerically solving assisted convective heat transfer problem of a cross section of flat plate solar collector. Governing partial differential equations are solved using the finite element simulation with Galerkin's weighted residual technique. The average Nusselt number (Nu) at the top hot wall, average temperature (θ av ), mean velocity (V av ), percentage of collector efficiency (η), mid-height dimensional temperature (T) for both nanofluid and base fluid through the collector pipe are presented graphically. The results show that the better performance of heat loss through the riser pipe of the flat plate solar collector is found by using the double nanoparticles (alumina and copper) than single nanoparticle (only alumina). When comparing the four nanofluids considering the same solid volume fraction ( = 5%), this study claims that the average Nusselt number for water-Ag nanofluid is higher than others.

Hybrid nanofluid flow and heat transfer over a nonlinear permeable stretching/shrinking surface

“…They examined the behavior between pure water, Cu/water nanofluid and Cu-TiO 2 /water hybrid nanofluid on the velocity, microrotation and temperature distribution. There are many investigations on hybrid nanofluid that were conducted with various aspects by the researchers such as Yen et al (2007); Labib et al (2013), Nasrin and Alim (2014); Takabi and Shokouhmand (2015); Ghadikolaei et al (2017); Hayat and Nadeem (2017); Jamshed and Aziz (2018); Ashorynejad and Shahriari (2018); Ghalambaz et al (2019); Mollamahdi et al (2018); Usman et al (2018) and Rostami et al (2018). For instance, the collection of papers on nanofluids or hybrid nanofluids can be found in the book by Das et al (2007) and in the review papers such as Trisaksri and Wongwises (2007); Wang and Mujumdar (2007, 2008a, 2008b; Kakac and Pramuanjaroenkij (2009); Kamyar et al (2012); Sarkar et al (2015); Sidik et al (2016); Sundar et al (2017); Akilu et al (2016), Babu et al (2017); Leong et al (2017), Ahmadi et al (2018); Ali et al (2018) and Huminic and Huminic (2018).…”

Numerical study of heat transport mechanism in hybrid nanofluid [(Cu-Al2O3)/water] over a stretching/shrinking porous wedge

“…Takabi and Shokouhmand 7 described the effects of a hybrid nanofluid containing (Al 2 O 3 Cu/Water) on heat transfer and flow properties in the turbulent regime. Nasrin and Alim 8 investigated finite-element simulation of forced convection in a flat plate solar collector with the influence of a nanofluid containing double nanoparticles. Recently, heat transportation in hybrid nanoliquid with dissipation and combined convection effects are reported by Khan et al 9…”

Investigation of laminar forced convection heat transfer of nanofluids through flat plate solar collector

“…Meanwhile, metal heat pipes, as well as internal fins, have been utilized for enhancing solar collectors' performance [13,14]. Furthermore, thermal performance has been raised considerably by the utilization of nanofluids in the flat plate collector [15,16].…”