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Corresponding Author

Elsayed, Moataz

Subject Area

Mechanical Power Engineering

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Solar energy is a natural and economical source available to meet energy requirement for various purposes, especially for domestic ones where water heaters consume a considerable electric power. Solar collectors are therefore drawing the attention of all interested people for saving energy. Since nanotechnology exhibits novel and significantly improved physical and chemical properties of nanofluids, workforce development is therefore very essential to reap the benefits of this nanotechnology in solar collector applications. The present work investigates experimentally the performance of a flat plate solar collector using city water as well as AL2O3-water based nanofluid as a working media. The test rig was developed at New Damietta higher institute of engineering & technology to carry out the experiments. Heat transfer rates were calculated using existing relationships in the literature for conventional fluids and nanofluids. The effect of nanoparticle concentration by volume, on thermal conductivity of nanofluid and on the collector efficiency under operational conditions was investigated. The used concentration value was . Solar collector efficiency on daily basis increased with the increase of nanoparticle concentration, . At =0.14, the increase in thermal conductivity of nanofluid was about 45% and in collector efficiency of about 20.7% compared with those when city water was used, respectively.

Keywords

solar energy; Solar Collectors; Nanofluids; heat transfer; convection

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