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CFD analysis of Al2 O3 -syltherm oil Nanofluid on parabolic trough

solar collector with a new flange-shaped turbulator model

Behzad Shaker , Mosayeb Gholinia , Mohsen Pourfallah ,

D.D. Ganji

PII: S2095-0349(22)00003-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.taml.2022.100323
Reference: TAML 100323

To appear in: Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters

Received date: 17 November 2021

Revised date: 27 December 2021
Accepted date: 29 December 2021

Please cite this article as: Behzad Shaker , Mosayeb Gholinia , Mohsen Pourfallah , D.D. Ganji ,
CFD analysis of Al2 O3 -syltherm oil Nanofluid on parabolic trough solar collector with a
new flange-shaped turbulator model, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters (2022), doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.taml.2022.100323

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Highlights for Review

 A new type of the parabolic trough solar collector is introduced in ANSYS -

FLUENT software
 The proposed collector models increase the heat transfer coefficient (h) and the
turbulence kinetic energy (TKE)
 Using Al2O3-syltherm oil nanofluid with high concentrations (5%) is suggested for
utilization in the solar collector.
 Simulations display that the new collector model (turbulator-20 sets) has better
temperature uniformity in the absorber tube.

Letter
CFD analysis of Al2O3-syltherm oil Nanofluid on
parabolic trough solar collector with a new flange-
shaped turbulator model
1 2,* 1 2,*
Behzad. Shaker , Mosayeb. Gholinia [email protected], Mohsen. Pourfallah , D.D. Ganji
[email protected]

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mazandaran University of science and Technology, Babol, Iran
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Babol Noushirvani University of Technology, Babol, Iran

*
Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel/Fax: +981132334205.

Abstract
In this paper, in order to improve the performance of a linear parabolic collector, the thermal
effects of using Al2O3-syltherm oil nanofluid with different concentrations and new flange-
shaped turbulators are investigated. The simulation was performed by ANSYS-FLUENT-18.2
commercial software using Realizable k-ε two-equation turbulence model. In accordance with
the results, it was realized that increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles (to 5%) and
number of turbulators causes the heat transfer coefficient (h) of the fluid to elevate and
ultimately the uniform temperature is created in the absorber. For instance, at a flow rate of
4.5 kg/s and an inlet temperature of 350K, the value of h increases by about 8.5 % by changing

1
the number of turbulators from 10 to 15 sets. On the other hand, the results indicate that by
changing the arrangement of the turbulators, the heat transfer efficiency of the collector can be
increased by 5 % for 350K, 3.5 % for 450 K and 1% for 550 K inlet temperature.

Keywords

Al2O3-syltherm oil Nanofluid; Flange-shaped turbulator; Pressure drop; Friction factor

There have been always efforts to find an unlimited source of energy that is pollution-free and

causes the least harm to the environment [1]. The reason is that most of the energy resources

used by humans are fuels with limited resources and abundant fossil pollution, which cause great

damage to the environment, the ozone layer and problems such as global warming [2]. One of

the energy resources that have the necessary properties to replace this type of fuels is solar

energy [3]. In recent years, many technologies have been developed and studied in order to use

solar energy. One of these technologies is the use of parabolic solar collectors that can be used

with unique features in various fields. These devices are composed of several components, the

two main components of which are parabolic mirror and tubular absorber [4]. The operation of

this device is such that the fluid in the tube is warmed up by the energy of the rays focused on

the tube by the mirror and its temperature rises to at least 400 °C [5]. The steam generated in this

process can be used in many systems, the most important of which are power generation systems

and heating systems [6]. This type of collector has more uses in the industry due to its high

efficiency compared to other solar collectors. Thappa et al. [7] published an article to investigate

the effect of the size of the absorber pipe diameter on the performance of the parabolic collector.

Their results showed that heat loss decreases to 5 W/m2 by decreasing the pipe diameter and the

overall performance of the system increases by 3%. The effect of deformation of the absorbent

2
tube floor on the thermal performance of the parabolic collector with working fluid of oil has

been published by Bellos et al. [8] Their results indicated that the deformation of the tube floor

in the form of convex waves can increase the thermal performance of the absorbent by 4.55%.

Valizade et al. [9] in an article analyzed the use of metal foam in parabolic collectors. The results

of their work showed that the use of this foam increases the friction factor, reduces the inlet

temperature and increases the thermal performance of the system. Also, an article has been

published by Bucadom et al [10] with the aim of investigating the addition of two types of gears

to the floor of a solar absorber, which indicates that the presence of these gears due to

perturbation in the thermal boundary layer, improves system temperature and performance.

According to studies, many factors affect heat transfer, including: material, temperature

difference between two surfaces, the rate of inlet and outlet of fluid, the area of heat transfer

surfaces, etc. [11-13]. Increasing the surface of heat transfer because of being the more diverse

and suitable effect is one of the best methods. For this purpose, turbulators and fins can be used

to increase heat transfer surfaces. As seen in most heat transfer systems such as heat sinks,

radiators and heat exchangers, the addition of a fin helps a lot to improve heat transfer to the

system, which will increase the efficiency of the whole system [14-17]. On the other hand,

choosing a suitable fluid is very important since it has the greatest effect on heat transfer. Using

fluids made by nanotechnology, much progress has been made in the field of heat transfer. A

fluid with a high heat transfer coefficient can be made by combining a base fluid and a type of

metal in nano-dimensions [18-21]. In these types of fluids, the high heat transfer coefficient is

due to the presence of metal in them, which can be used in parabolic collectors to make more

exploitation of solar energy [22]. Improving the performance of parabolic collectors using

nanofluids was studied by Cázares et al. [23]. Their results showed that nanofluids with higher

3
volume fraction will have a better effect on improving the thermal performance of the system

and also it will increase the thermal performance by up to 80%. Subramani et al. [24] in another

work investigated the use of TiO2 / DI-H2O nanofluid in a linear parabolic collector. Their results

indicate that: This new nanofluid with the appropriate ratio of nanoparticles can improve system

performance up to 8.66%. By analyzing the exergy of a solar collector with Al2O3 / oil working

fluid in which the nanoparticles were considered to vary from 0 to 5%, Khakrah et al. [25]

concluded that adding a maximum of 5% of the nanoparticles to the base fluid increases the

efficiency up to 19%. Bellos et al. [26] by simulating several fins with different sizes in a

parabolic collector, concluded that the use of a 10mm height and 2mm thick fin increases the

Nusselt number up to 65.8% and the thermal efficiency up to 0.82%.

The main purpose of the simulation performed in this study is to investigate the

factors affecting heat transfer and design a new absorber tube for a parabolic trough collector

(PTC), that has the highest heat transfer rate. For this purpose, two basic innovations have been

used in this paper, one of them is the use of special flange-shaped turbulators in the absorber tube

and the other is the use of Al2O3- syltherm oil nanofluid as heat transfer fluid. For this aim, the

simulation is performed in 3 different cases of flange-shaped turbulators using ANSYS-

FLUENT-18.2 commercial software and using Realizable k-ε turbulence model. The heat flux in

the environment is calculated by using the Monte Carlo radiation tracking method [27].

The PTC in this study is a type of concentrating collector that reflects sunlight on a line.

This collector consists of a parabolic reflective sheet that is glossy and made of glass or metal. A

steel absorber tube with a glass cover around it, is located along the focal length of this parabolic

reflector. Heat transfer fluid flows in the tube and the heat absorbed by the absorbent is

transferred to this fluid, and the heated fluid can be used for various purposes. The studied

4
parabolic collector has special geometric and optical properties that are presented in Table 1

[27]. Also, this PTC has a concentration factor of 22.74, which has an optical efficiency of

approximately 75.50%. In this study, flange-shaped turbulators are used in the absorber tube;

these turbulators are used in different numbers 10-15-20 sets in the form of 3 loops and in a row.

Another innovation discussed in this paper is the use of Al2O3 nanoparticles in Syltherm oil base

fluid [28]. Design details of the absorbent tubes are presented in Fig. 1 and Table 2.

In studies on absorbents, the fluid flow inside the tube is fully developed and the system

is considered stable and the fluid flow is considered turbulence. In this paper, we have tried to

investigate the effect of new flange-shaped turbulators and the use of Al2O3 nanofluid in

improving the heat transfer of the absorbent compared to the smooth absorbent tube (SAT). First,

we study the SAT as a reference so that we can make an accurate comparison between the

designed absorbers and the made turbulators, and examine the impact of the innovation on

improving heat transfer.

In this paper, Al2O3-syltherm oil heat transfer fluid has been used to investigate the

designed absorbents. This fluid is a nanofluid made from the dispersion of Al2O3 nanoparticles

with different concentrations in the Syltherm-800 base fluid, therefore it has good heat transfer

properties and is used as a working fluid in parabolic trough collector (PTC) (See Table 3). This

fluid is not in the ANSYS -FLUENT software library by default, so we have to write its

properties in UDF code and insert it in the software. The equations to calculate the specifications

of the base fluid and nanofluid are given below [28]:

Property : A0  A1T[K]  A2T2[K]  A3T3[K]  A4T4[K] (1)

5
In addition, Al2O3 nanoparticle properties are given in different temperatures (see Table 4) [28].

The equations to calculate the thermophysical properties of nanofluid are given below [27, 28]:

   
Density: nf  1       s   .(2)
  f  

Specific heat capacity:

  c  
 c    c  1     p s

 c  
p nf p f (3)
 p f

Viscosity:

f
nf  (4)
1   
2.5

Thermal conductivity:

knf ks   m  1 kf   m  1   kf  ks 
 (5)
kf ks   m  1 kf    kf  ks 

Stainless steel is used to make the absorber tube and flange-shaped turbulators, the

properties of which are shown in Table 5 [27,28]. For all the studied cases, the amount of solar

radiation based on the Fig. 2 (Monte Carlo radiation tracking method) is written with UDF code

and inserted in fluent software [27].

The mathematical equations and definitions of used parameters in this study are as follows [26-
30]:
To calculate the Nusselt number [29]:

h d
Nu = (6)
k
The heat transfer coefficient (HTC) between the absorber tube and the heat transfer fluid can be
obtained as follows:

6
 Qpro
h (7)
  d  L  Tr  Tm 
where the 𝑄𝑝𝑟𝑜 is the amount of useful generated thermal energy; 𝑇𝑟 is the average internal
surface temperature of the absorbent and 𝑇𝑚 is the average temperature of the heat transfer fluid
used in the calculations.
Qpro  mCp Tout  Tin  (8)

The Reynolds number is obtained by the following [30]:

 in  d
Re  (9)


where ⍴, in and μ are dynamic density, inlet velocity and viscosity, respectively. The Gnielinski

equation [31] for the Nusselt number is also given as follows:

f
  Re  1000  pr
Nuth  8 (10)
f  3 
2
1  12.7    pr  1 
8  
In Eq.(10) f will be as follows [32]:

f  0.79ln Re  1.61 (11)

2

We use the Eq. (12) to calculate the friction factor [30]:

f=
 ΔP  × d
L
(12)
v2
ρ×
2
The Filonenko equation for the friction factor is also given as follows [32]:

f  1.82lg Re  1.64 (13)

2

Equation (14) is exploited to calculate the efficiency of the parabolic trough collector (PTC)
[27, 28].

T T 2
 %  k 73.4  0.00803T   9.68  0.0669 (14)
Ib Ib

7
The expression ∆𝑇 in the above equation is obtained from the Eq. (15):

T  Tin  Tout  /2  Tamb (15)

The system is considered steady for this paper, and the flow is turbulent, incompressible

and with forced convection heat transfer, and its equations will be as follows [15, 27]. (See Eqs.

(16)- (18))

Momentum equation:
  u uj  2 
 
 P  u
x j
uiuj                 T  T0  g (16)
 i  l
xi x j  t   x j xi  3 t  x ij 
   l 

Energy equation:

     t  T 
x j
 uT
j    
x j  Pr t
  (17)
 x j 
K- 𝜀 equation:

    t  k 
x j
 ujk         Gk  Gb  ,
x j  k  x j 
(18)
    t    2 
x j
 uj         C2
x j    x j  k  
 C1 C3Gb .
k

The discretization of the governing equations is performed by the finite element method

(FEM) [33,34] and by ANSYS-Fluent 18.2 software. For fluid flow, Realizable k-ε turbulence

model, convection term discretization by QUICK method, pressure by PRESTO method and

energy equation by second-order upwind scheme method have been used. The SIMPLEC

method is used to relate the pressure and velocity. The plate between the fluid and the solid body

is coupled before initialization. The residual value for the convergence of the numerical solutions

obtained with the equations k, ε, continuity and motion is considered to be less than 10-6, while

for the energy equation, the residual value is less than 10-9. In this study, convergence is obtained

8
in the abovementioned residual values. Also, we considered a constant number for the average

temperature and pressure outside the system for all cases.

Figure 1 shows the location of the turbulators as well as the fluid inlet and outlet. To study the

absorbents, we must use the appropriate and uniform boundary conditions for all the designed

cases so that we can make a correct comparison between them. Boundary conditions are as

follows:

The simulations performed in this paper have been done with 3 different mass flow rates so

that we can determine the effect of the amount of inlet fluid on heat transfer. The ambient

temperature in all cases was 350K [27,28] and also we used 3 inlet temperatures of 350 K, 450 K

and 550 K.

Figure 2 shows a diagram of the heat flux distribution at different angles of the pipe

environment. This diagram is drawn with different simulations and by Monte Carlo radiation

tracking method (MCRT) [29]. The non-slip condition is also applied to the pipe walls, both in

the upper and lower halves.

The only condition for the absorber outlet is that we set the pressure gradient to zero.

The authors of the present study examined the effects of meshes for greater confidence in

the results. The number of meshes in each case is different, so that for a collector with 10 sets of

turbulators, the number of meshes is 5,753,000 and with increasing the number of wide surfaces

to 15 and 20 sets of turbulators, the number of meshes increases to 7,330,000 and 9,800,000

respectively. The calculations required for the simulation were performed with a computer

system with 32 GB-RAM and core-i9 processors. For instance, Fig. 3 shows the mesh

9
independence test for the absorber tube with 10 sets of turbulators (case 1). Based on Fig. 3,

more than 5,753,000 meshes don’t have effect on the results.

We should have a proper validation of the new model in order to make a correct

comparison and examine the impact of the proposed innovations on improving heat transfer.

First, for a smooth absorber, we check the accuracy of the numerical model. The results of

simulations and calculations performed on the smooth tube indicated that the results correspond

well with the classical values of Gnielinski and Filonenko [31,32]. As shown in Fig. 4, the

graphs of Nusselt changes and friction factor have a small error compared to the classical value,

which is equal to 7.5% for Nusselt and for the friction factor it is equal to 5.5 %. Since the

obtained errors are in the appropriate range, the simulation and analysis performed is valid and

this simulation process can be a good criterion for other models.

The main focus of this paper is to investigate the results of velocity, temperature changes,

heat transfer coefficient, and turbulence kinetic energy on a linear parabolic collector with the

presence of turbulators in the path of the fluid and the absorbent wall. Also, the effect of

important parameters on the collector efficiency is evaluated in this paper. The working fluid in

this set is Al2O3-syltherm-800, which is considered to be single-phase.

Temperature distribution on the absorbent surface is one of the most important parameters

that should be considered in PTC. Since the heat flux applied to the bottom of the absorber pipe

is high, there is a possibility of damage to the pipe and deformation overtime for the pipe. The

designed absorbent pipe has eliminated this problem to some extent compared to SAT. The

turbulators in the absorber tube are designed to absorb heat from the absorber floor and reduce its

temperature significantly due to its high heat transfer coefficient. In addition, the turbulators will

10
be able to transfer this received heat into the fluid and provide a more uniform temp. In the

designed examples of this study, by increasing the number of turbulators, the average

temperature of the inner surface of the absorber pipe decreases. The outlet temperature of the

fluid in all the designed cases increases by about 4.5 K compared to the inlet temperature.

Meanwhile, the average temperature at a distance of 2.5 mm from the bottom of the absorber

wall for simulations performed at the temperature of 450 K and with a mass flow rate of

4.5 kg/s for 10, 15 and 20 sets of turbulators are equal to 513.498 K , 509.139 K and 503.924 K,

respectively. This decrease in mean temperature indicates that the temperature will be more

uniformly distributed as the number of turbulators increases. The presence of a turbulators can

turbulence the internal flow of the pipe and increase the heat transfer between the absorber wall

and the working fluid, which reduces the average temperature of the inside of the absorber pipe.

Figure 5 shows the temperature contour for the different number of turbulators and smooth tube.

Also, Fig. 6 displays the temperature contour in close-up, showing the effect of the turbulators on

making the temperature more uniform. As can be seen, the presence of the turbulator, in addition

to reducing the temperature of the absorbent tube, can spread the temperature more uniformly in

the fluid.

Heat transfer coefficient is one of the indicators by which we can better understand the

rate of heat transfer between a fluid and a solid. We will always seek to increase this coefficient

to create better heat transfer in the designed adsorbents. As shown in the results, the presence of

turbulators in the absorber pipe will increase the heat transfer coefficient. This increase in heat

transfer is firstly due to the increase in heat transfer surfaces between the fluid and the

turbulators, and secondly, the presence of these turbulators destroys the thermal boundary layer

and also causes better mixing of the flow, which in turn increases the heat transfer coefficient.

11
On the other hand, by increasing the number of turbulators, there is a higher heat transfer

coefficient. In addition to the turbulator, increasing the mass flow rate causes the flow to be more

turbulent and improves heat transfer to a large extent. As shown in the diagrams, for the sample

designed with 15 sets of turbulators at a temperature of 450K with a mass flow rate of 4.5 kg/s,

the h amount is 695.659, but by increasing the mass flow rate to 8.5 kg/s, the h will be 1276.959.

Moreover, by increasing temperature and increasing nanofluid concentration, heat transfer

coefficient will increase due to changes in the thermophysical properties of the nanofluid. Heat

transfer coefficient in different inlet temperatures is shown in the Fig. 7.

As can be seen from the flow lines in the velocity contours, the presence of a turbulator in

the absorber tube causes a loss of order in the flow. In the absence of order in the flow lines near

the absorber wall, no boundary layer is created, so heat transfer near the absorber wall can be

done properly. In addition, the fluid velocity and the presence of a turbulator cause vortices in

the absorber tube. The higher the fluid velocity, the greater the number and intensity of these

vortices. The turbulators used in this paper are placed in a circle along the fluid. These

turbulators, which are placed in the tube in triplicate, can affect the velocity and order of the

flow. As shown in temperature contours and velocity contours (Fig. 8), in areas where the fluid

hits the turbulators and changes the direction of the velocity vectors, heat transfer is better.

Nusselt number diagrams for 1% nanofluid concentration are shown in Fig. 9. These

graphs are taken at different temperatures. One of the factors increasing the Nusselt number is

increasing the mass flow rate. For the absorber designed with 10 sets of turbulators at the input

temperature of 350 K with increasing the mass flow rate from 4.5 to 6.5 Nusselt number will

increase from 220 to 280. Also, with increasing the mass flow rate to 8.5 the Nusselt number will
12
reaches 346. In the other hand increasing the number of turbulators inside the tube will also

increase the Nusselt number. Increasing in the Nusselt number shows better convection heat

transfer than conduction heat transfer.

Examining the results between the simple pipe and the absorber pipe designed with 20

sets of turbulators, it is observed that the turbulence energy of the current will increase

significantly. As shown in TKE contours Fig. 10, the amount of TKE does not increase in a

simple pipe due to the uniformity of the flow, but in the designed absorber pipe, this amount will

improve due to the presence of tandem turbulators, which will increase the heat transfer. In

addition to the presence of a turbulators, the amount of input mass flow rate will also have a

large impact on increasing the TKE. By comparing the designed absorber tube with 20 sets of

turbulators in different mass flow rate s and observing their contours, it can be understood that

the turbulence energy is directly related to the fluid inlet mass flow rate. As the mass flow rate

increases from 4.5 kg/s to 6.5 kg/s, the TKE value increases by 83% and by increasing the mass

flow rate from 6.5 kg/s to 8.5 kg/s, this value increases by 62%. These percentages were

calculated in the case with 10 sets of turbulators and inlet temperature of 350 K. As shown in Fig.

10, TKE will increase in area where the fluid collision to turbulators.

Because excessive pressure drop can affect the overall performance of the parabolic

collector, it is necessary to determine the importance of each factor affecting the pressure drop.

Many parameters affect the pressure drop, such as inlet mass flow rate, number of turbulators,

pipe diameter and nanofluid concentration. Since the main cause of friction pressure drop is due

to the collision of the fluid with the solid body, the amount of mass flow rate and the number of

13
turbulators will have a great impact on the pressure drop. As shown in the Fig. 11 contours,

increasing the mass flow rate will increase the pressure drop. Considering the adsorber tube

designed with 15 sets of turbulators, if the inlet mass flow rate is 4.5 kg/s, the amount of

pressure drop will be equal to 106259 Pa, with the inlet mass flow rate of 6.5 kg/s, this value

will be equal to 220370 Pa, and in the simulation with the inlet mass flow rate of 8.5 kg/s, the

pressure drop will be equal to 375000 Pa. Also, by increasing the number of turbulators, the

amount of friction caused by nanofluid collisions with the wall increases and this in turn

increases the amount of pressure drop. In this simulation, by changing 10 sets of turbulators to 20

sets, the pressure drop increases by 96%, temperature inlet in this samples is equal to 350 K.

To calculate the dimensionless friction coefficient, we use Eq. (12). As shown in the

equation, changes in fluid pressure and velocity will have the greatest effect on the coefficient of

friction. It can be seen from the diagrams of Fig. 12 that as the fluid velocity increases, the

amount of friction coefficient decreases. Also, if the fluid inlet pressure is greater than the fluid

outlet pressure, the amount of friction coefficient will be higher. Moreover, increasing the

number of turbulators increases the coefficient of friction because it increases the collisions

inside the pipe and causes more pressure drop. In the inlet mass flow rate of 4.5 kg/s and inlet

temperature of 350 K for a tube designed with 10 sets of turbulators, the friction coefficient is

0.788, which under the same conditions for a absorber designed with a 15 sets of turbulators is

1.02, in which we will have an increase of 29.45%.

Also, in another comparison for turbulators with different sizes in a tube designed with 15 sets of

turbulators, it was found that if we increase the height of the turbulators to 5 mm, the coefficient

14
of friction will increase by 15%. This result is due to the increase in the amount of fluid

collisions with the turbulators.

Equation (14) is used to calculate the efficiency of the parabolic collector. According to

this equation, the efficiency depends on ∆𝑇 and the only variable in this formula is ∆𝑇, which we

can get from Eq. (15). Where Tin is the temperature of the inlet fluid and Tout is the temperature

of the outlet fluid. Tamb is also the ambient temperature and is considered to be a constant for all

cases. Therefore, according to the given equations for efficiency and ∆𝑇, the only effective factor

on efficiency is fluid inlet and outlet temperature. As shown in Tables 6-8, increasing the fluid

inlet temperature reduces the efficiency, but increasing mass flow rate slightly improves the

efficiency. In general, if the working temperature of the absorbent pipe is closer to the ambient

temperature, the value of ∆𝑇 is lower and the efficiency is higher. The maximum efficiency is for

the absorber pipe designed with 20 sets turbulators and with an inlet mass flow rate of 8.5 kg/s.

Heat transfer plays an important role in industry and power plants, so in the present

study, the heat transfer in the linear parabolic solar collector has been numerically simulated by

replacing the nanofluid with pure oil fluid. The heat flux in the peripheral direction is done using

Monte Carlo radiation tracking method and Navier-Stokes three-dimensional equations of mass,

momentum and energy using ANSYS-FLUENT-18.2 commercial software and the SIMPLEC

method is considered for speed-pressure coupling. The main innovation in this study is the use of

special flange-shaped turbulators in the wall of the absorber tube, which are placed in three rows

and 10, 15 and 20 sets of turbulators. Results indicate that:

15
  If the fluid inlet pressure is higher than the fluid outlet pressure (𝑃in > 𝑃out ), the

amount of friction coefficient will be higher.

 If the working temperature of the absorbent pipe is closer to the ambient temperature,

the value of ∆𝑇 is lower and the efficiency is higher.

 If the number of turbulators in the absorber wall increases from 10 to 20, the pressure

drop increases about 96%.

 If the mass flow rate increases from 4.5 kg/s to 6.5 kg/s, the TKE value increases to

83% and by increasing the mass flow rate from 6.5 kg/s to 8.5 kg/s, this value

increases to 62%.

 Increasing the number of turbulators and the mass flow rate will increase the Nusselt

number and shows the better convection heat transfer rate.

 If the number of turbulators (10 to 20) and the mass flow rate (4.5 to 8.5 kg/s) change,

the Nusselt number increases and shows the better convection heat transfer rate.

In general, it can be concluded that the model presented in this study is a suitable model for

utilizing clean solar energy. Since this model can reduce the wall temperature of the absorber

pipe and distribute the heat more uniformly on the absorber pipe, this can significantly reduce the

damage to the absorber pipe.

Ethics approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of

the authors.

Declaration of Competing Interest

16
 The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships

that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Babol

Noushirvani University of Technology, Iran.

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Figure 1. The linear parabolic collector geometry.

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Figure 2. A graph of heat flux distribution.

Figure 3. Heat transfer coefficient in different number of meshes for 10 turbulator case.

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 a. Nusselt b. friction factor
Figure 4. Validation graph for Nusselt number and friction factor.

a. SAT b. 10 set

c. 15 set d. 20 set

Figure 5: The temperature contours in Tin 450 K and mass flow rate of 4.5 kg/s for different turbulators.

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 a. SAT b. With turbulators

Figure 6: The temperature contour in close-up, showing the effect of the turbulators

a. T=350 K b. T=450 K

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 c. T=550 K

Figure 7. Heat transfer coefficient in different inlet temperatures

a. 4.5 𝑘𝑔/𝑠

b. 6.5 𝑘𝑔/𝑠

c. 8.5 𝑘𝑔/𝑠

24
Figure 8. Velocity contours for different mass flow inlets.

b:T=450K a:T=350K

c:T=550K
Figure 9. Nusselt number graph in different inlet temperatures.

25
 a: SAT

b: 4.5 kg/s

c: 6.5 kg/s

d: 8.5 kg/s

Figure 10. TKE contours for different mass flow inlets.

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 a. 8.5 kg/s-10 set b. 6.5 kg/s-10 set c. 4.5 kg/s-10 set

d. 8.5 kg/s-15 set e. 6.5 kg/s-15 set f. 4.5 kg/s-15 set

g. 8.5 kg/s-20 set h. 6.5 kg/s-20set I. 4.5 kg/s-20 set

Figure 11. Pressure contour for various mass flow and turbulators.

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 a:T=350 K b:T=450 K

c:T=550 K
Figure 12. Friction factor in different inlet temperatures.

28
Table1: The specifications related to the collector size and its optical properties.
Row Specification Symbol ( m) Value
1 Length of the absorber tube L 7.8
2 Width of the parabola W 5
3 Focal length F 1.84
4 Concentration Ratio CR 22.74
5 Optical efficiency 𝜂opt 0.755

6 Absorptivity α 0.96
7 Transmissivity T 0.96
8 Reflectivity ρ 0.94

Table2. Geometric specifications of turbulators used in absorber tube.

Parameter Value(m)
𝐷1 0.003
𝐷2 0.036
𝐷3 0.032
𝐷4 (Inner diameter of adsorber) 0.066
𝐷5 (Inner diameter of adsorber) 0.070
D6 0.008
D7 (Thickness of each turbulator) 0.004
Glass cover Inner diameter 0.109
Glass cover outer diameter 0.115
Number of triple sets of turbulators 10-15-20

Table 3. Correlation for the Syltherm-800 properties according to Dow Chemical Company [28].

Property Cp [J/(kg·K)] 𝜌[kg/m3] K [W/(m·K)] 𝜇[Pa·s]

A1 1.10787577E3 1.26903060E3 0.19011994 8.486612E-2

A1 1.70742274 -1.52080898 -1.88022387E-4 -5.541277E-4
A2 0 1.79056397E-3 0 1.388285E-6
A3 0 -1.67087252E-6 0 -1.566003E-9

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 A4 0 0 0 6.672331E-13

Table 4. Nanoparticle properties at different temperatures.

Property 350 K 450 K 550 K

Cp [J/(kg·K)] 785.025 942.03 1046.7

𝜌[kg/m3] 3900 3900 3900
K [W/(m·K)] 36.9601 27.209 20.93

Table 5. The specifications of stainless steel [27-28].

row property value

1 Density 8027.17 k g⁄m3
2 Specific heat 502.4 J/(kg · K)
3 Conductivity 16 W/(m · K)

Table 6. Efficiency of absorber with 10 sets turbulators.

Row Turbulator Inlet temperature (K) Mass flow rates Efficiency (%)
numbers (kg/s)
1 10 350 4.5 72.275
2 10 350 6.5 72.286
3 10 350 8.5 72.298
4 10 450 4.5 69.058
5 10 450 6.5 69.077
6 10 450 8.5 69.086
7 10 550 4.5 64.435
8 10 550 6.5 64.464
9 10 550 8.5 64.485

Table 7. Efficiency of absorber with 15 sets of turbulators

Row Turbulator Inlet temperature (K) Mass flow rates Efficiency (%)
numbers (kg/s)
1 15 350 4.5 72.283
2 15 350 6.5 72.292
3 15 350 8.5 72.304
4 15 450 4.5 69.069
5 15 450 6.5 69.088
6 15 450 8.5 69.098

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 7 15 550 4.5 64.454
8 15 550 6.5 64.463
9 15 550 8.5 64.498

Table 8. Efficiency of absorber with 20 sets of turbulators.

Row Turbulator Inlet temperature (K) Mass flow rates Efficiency (%)
numbers (kg/s)
1 20 350 4.5 72.294
2 20 350 6.5 72.299
3 20 350 8.5 72.324
4 20 450 4.5 69.079
5 20 450 6.5 69.098
6 20 450 8.5 69.108
7 20 550 4.5 64.462
8 20 550 6.5 64.474
9 20 550 8.5 64.505

31