Utilizing nanofluid as an absorber fluid is an effective approach to enhance heat transfer in solar devices. The purpose of this review is to summarize the research done on the nanofluids' applications in solar thermal engineering systems in recent years. This review article provides comprehensive information for the design of a solar thermal system working at the optimum conditions. This paper identifies the opportunities for future research as well.

Nanofluids are expected to be a promising coolant candidate in chemical processes for water waste remediation and heat transfer system size reduction. This paper focuses on the potential mass flowrate reduction in exchanger with a given heat exchange capacity using nanofluids. Al2O3 nanoparticles with diameters of 7 nm dispersed in water with volume concentrations up to 2% are selected as a coolant, and their performance in a horizontal double-tube counterflow heat exchanger under turbulent flow conditions is numerically studied. The results show that the flowrate of nanofluid coolant decreases with the increase of concentration of nanoparticles in the exchanger with a given heat exchange capacity. The mass flowrate of the nanofluid at a volume concentration of 2 vol.% is approximately 24.5% lower than that of pure water (base fluid) for given conditions. For the pressure drop, the results show that the pressure drop of nanofluid is slightly higher than water and increases with increase of volume concentrations. In addition, the reduction of wall temperature and heat transfer area is estimated.

Application of CuO-water nanofluid with size of the nanoparticles of 20 nm and volume concentrations up 2% is numerically investigated in a radiator of Chevrolet Suburban diesel engine under turbulent flow conditions. The heat transfer relations between airflow and nanofluid coolant have been obtained to evaluate local convective and overall heat transfer coefficients and also pumping power for nanofluid flowing in the radiator with a given heat exchange capacity. In the present study, the effects of the automotive speed and Reynolds number of the nanofluid in the different volume concentrations on the radiator performance are also investigated. The results show that for CuO-water nanofluid at 2% volume concentration circulating through the flat tubes with Re nf = 6000 while the automotive speed is 70 km/hr, the overall heat transfer coefficient and pumping power are approximately 10% and 23.8% more than that of base fluid for given conditions, respectively.

No abstract

The present study modifies the structural design of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger (STHE) by considering two key parameters such as the maximization of the overall heat transfer coefficient and minimization of the total pressure drop. Five geometric design variables which include the tube inside diameter, tube outside diameter, pitch size, baffle spacing, and the tube length are investigated for optimization. The governing equations for design and optimization of the STHE are evaluated; and the optimum design parameters are obtained by Bees Algorithm (BA). The selection of the important design parameters to achieve the proper design is evaluated by fixing each of these parameters, while the other the design parameters are selected as variable to optimize the effectiveness. Compared with the original STHE, the overall heat transfer coefficient is increased by 22.78 % with the minimum increase in the total pressure drop by 1.8%.