Characterization of Local Nano‐Heat Transfer Fluids for Solar Thermal Collection

Abstract

Performance of organic oils in solar thermal collection is limited due to their low thermal conductivity when they are compared to molten salt solutions. Extraction of organic oils from plants can be locally achieved. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of use of copper nanoparticles in some base local heat transfer fluids (HTFs). Addition of volume fraction of 1.2% of the copper nanoparticles to oil-based heat transfer fluids improved their thermal conductivity as deduced from the thermal heat they conducted from solar radiation. The oil-based copper nanofluids were obtained by preparation of a colloidal solution of the nanoparticles. Impurities were added to increase the boiling point of the nano-heat transfer fluids. Stabilizers were used to keep the particles suspended in the oil-based fluids. The power output of the oil-based copper nano-heat transfer fluids was in the range of 475.4 W to 1130 W. The heat capacity of the steam in the heat exchanger was 93.7% dry and had a thermal capacity of 5.71 × 103 kJ. The heat rate of flow of the oil-based copper nano-heat transfer fluids was an average of 72.7 Js−1·kg−1 to 89.1 Js−1·kg−1. The thermal efficiency for the oil-based copper nano-heat transfer fluids ranged from 0.85 to 0.91. The average solar thermal solar intensity was in the range 700 Wm−2 to 1180 Wm−2. The heat exchanger used in this study was operating at 4.15 × 103 kJ and a temperature of 500.0°C. The heat transfer fluids entered the exchanger at an average temperature of 381°C and exited at 96.3°C and their heat coefficient ranged between 290.1 Wm−2°C and 254.1 Wm−2°C. The average temperatures of operation ranged between 394.1°C and 219.7°C with respective temperature efficiencies ranging between 93.4% and 64.4%. It was established that utilization of copper nanoparticles to enhance heat transfer in oil-based local heat transfer fluids can mitigate energy demand for meeting the world’s increasing energy uses, especially for areas inaccessible due to poor land terrain.

Investigation of viscous dissipation and entropy generation in third grade nanofluid flow over a stretched riga plate with Cattaneo-Christov Double Diffusion (CCDD) model

“…Information on the rheological conduct of nanoliquids is found to be basic in choosing their appropriateness for applications of convective heat transport. Nanoliquids also have extraordinary acoustical characteristics and in ultrasonic fields highlight extra shear-wave reconversion of an incident compressional wave, the salient characteristics turns out to be more articulated as concentration enhances [2]. In computational fluid dynamics, naniliquids can be assumed to be single phase liquids, practically all new scholarly research papers utilize a two-phase assumption.…”