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The Combined Effect of Al2O3 Nanofluid and Coiled Wire Inserts in a Flat-Plate Solar Collector on Heat Transfer, Thermal Efficiency and Environmental CO2 Characteristics

  • Research Article-Mechanical Engineering
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Abstract

The present study experimentally investigated the thermal efficiency, collector area, weight, embodied energy, environmental CO2 emissions of Al2O3/water nanofluid flow in a flat-plate solar collector and with coiled wire turbulators. The experiments were performed at \(\phi \) that is equal to 0.1%, 0.2% and 0.3% and volume flow rate from 120 to 300 L/h. Results indicate that the collector thermal efficiency increased with the increase of particle volume loadings and volume flow rates. The thermal efficiency of the collector with water circulate is 53%, whereas it is enhanced to 65% at \(\phi \) = 0.3% nanofluid, and it is further enhanced to 77% for \(\phi \) = 0.3% nanofluid with 10-mm coiled wire insert in a collector tube at a volume flow rate of 300 L/h. The collector area is declined to 8.66% (\(\phi \) = 0.1%), 14% (\(\phi \) = 0.2%) and 18.66% (\(\phi \) = 0.3%) for nanofluids. The collector area is further reduced to 31.33% for \(\phi \) = 0.3% nanofluid and with a coiled wire pitch of 10 mm. The materials embodied energy is decreased to 1144.36 MJ for \(\phi \) = 0.3% nanofluid, and it is further reduced to 1022.6 MJ with the use of a wire coil pitch of 10 mm, but for water, it is 1451.4 MJ. The Nusselt number is increased to 23.22% with ϕ = 0.3% nanofluid, and it further enhanced to 53.56% at same particle loadings and coiled wire pitch of 10 mm over the water data.

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Abbreviations

\(A_{{\text{c}}}\) :

Collector surface area (m2)

c p :

Heat capacity (J/kg K)

\(c_{{{\text{p}},{\text{bf}}}}\) :

Specific heat of base fluid (J/kg K)

\(c_{{{\text{p}},{\text{np}}}}\) :

Specific heat of nanoparticles (J/kg K)

\(c_{{{\text{p}},{\text{nf}}}}\) :

Specific heat of nanofluid (J/kg K)

d :

Tube diameter (m)

\(d_{{\text{h}}}\) :

Hydraulic diameter (m)

\(d_{{\text{c}}}\) :

Coiled wire diameter (m)

e :

Wire thickness (m)

\(F_{{\text{R}}}\) :

Heat removal factor

\(G_{{\text{T}}}\) :

Global solar radiation (W/m2)

\(\dot{m}\) :

Mass flow rate (kg/s)

Nu:

Nusselt number

P :

Pitch (m)

Pr:

Prandtl number

\(\dot{Q}_{{\text{u}}}\) :

Useful energy gained rate (W)

Re:

Reynolds number

\(T_{{\text{a}}}\) :

Ambient temperature (K)

\(T_{{\text{i}}}\) :

Fluid inlet temperature (K)

\(T_{{\text{o}}}\) :

Fluid outlet temperature (K)

\(U_{{\text{L}}}\) :

Overall heat loss coefficient (W/m2K)

\(W\) :

Weight (g)

\({\rm T}\alpha\) :

Absorptance–transmittance product

P :

Density (kg/m3)

\({\Delta }\) :

Particle size (nm)

B(2θ):

Half-maximum intensity peak (radians)

θ :

Maximum intensity peak angle

T :

Solar collector time constant (min)

\(\mu\) :

Viscosity (mPa s)

\(\eta_{{\text{i}}}\) :

Instantaneous collector efficiency

\({\Phi }\) :

Particle volume concentration (%)

CNT:

Carbon nanotubes

EG:

Ethylene glycol

MWCNT:

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes

SDBS:

Sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by Taif University Researchers Supporting Project Number (TURSP-2020/49), Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia. The authors would like to thank Taif University for financial support.

Funding

Taif University, TURSP-2020/49, B Saleh.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif, 21944, Saudi Arabia

    B. Saleh & Ayman A. Aly

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Centre for Mechanical Technology and Automation (TEMA–UA), University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    L. Syam Sundar & Antonio C. M. Sousa

  3. I3N, Department of Physics, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    E. Venkata Ramana

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University-Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

    K. V. Sharma

  5. Department of Mechanical Engineering, P. A. College of Engineering, Mangaluru, India

    Asif Afzal

  6. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, Assiut, 71515, Egypt

    Yasser Abdelrhman

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  1. B. Saleh
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Saleh, B., Sundar, L.S., Aly, A.A. et al. The Combined Effect of Al2O3 Nanofluid and Coiled Wire Inserts in a Flat-Plate Solar Collector on Heat Transfer, Thermal Efficiency and Environmental CO2 Characteristics. Arab J Sci Eng 47, 9187–9214 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-021-06478-7

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