A CFD Analysis of Flat Plate Solar Collector With Nanofluids

ME-423
A CFD Analysis of flat

plate solar collector with
nanofluids
M Taha
Presenters Khan
M Usman
2018337 2018346
Introduction
 Solar collectors collect energy from the sun by converting it into heat energy and in turn electricity.
 Material type for absorption.
 Flat plates are enclosed in a box with transparent plates.
 Evacuated tube collectors are another category of solar collectors widely used.
Solar collection inside tubes filled with air.
 A nanofluid is a fluid containing nanometer-sized particles, called nanoparticles. These fluids are engineered colloidal suspensions of nanoparticles
in a base fluid. The nanoparticles used in nanofluids are typically made of metals, oxides, carbides, or carbon nanotubes.
 Nanofluids have shown great potential in increasing the thermal efficiency of the fluids which have been studied and shown in slides to come.
 The solar collectors can then be used to provide heat energy for domestic or industrial use.
Lit review 1.
Time-based analysis of stability and thermal efficiency of
flat plate solar collector using iron oxide nanofluid
Adoption of nanofluids is a novel approach to improve the performance in heat transfer application.
In the case of nanofluids long term stability is a concern which was experimentally examined and
compared with no nano fluids present in this literature.
Iron-oxide: distilled water(50:50) was analyzed which showed 1vol% Fe3O4 was only
instantaneously stable.
Concentration range of 0.2-1vol% with (SDBS) surfactant was stable for fifteen days.
Lit review 1.
Time-based analysis of stability and thermal efficiency of
flat plate solar collector using iron oxide nanofluid
Thermal efficiency of flat plate solar collector was investigated in the range of 0.2-1vol% Fe3O4 at
the flow rate of 30-150(L/h).
The 1vol% Fe3O4 and 30(L/h) found the optimum parameters as a result of higher outlet temp and
higher efficiency.
Lit review 2.
ValidationofCFDsimulationforflat platesolarenergycollector.
 In this paper a flat plate solar collector with and without cover glass was simulated
using CFD with flow and without flow of water.
 The project model consists of a rectangular wooden box covered with transparent
glass. Aluminum plate is used as an absorber and a 0.5 in diameter pipe is used.
 For the collector boundaries both have convection and radiation. Aluminum plate has
density of 2770, and conductivity of 177 and the copper pipe has density of 8800 and
conductivity of 401.
 Speed of water inside is set at 0.0170484. For no flow maximum registered plate
temperature is equal to 370K and of water inside tube is 361K.
 For Second with flow rate of water 1.361573 the maximum registered plate
temperature is 345K and water temperature at outlet is 327.38K.

Lit review 3.
Numerical Simulation of a solar flat plate collector using Discrete Transfer Radiation Model (DTRM).
 In this paper the flow domain consists of an absorber plate, a pipe 10mm in diameter with a thickness of
1mm. The absorber plate is covered with a glass of 5mm.
 Numerical simulation is carried out with steady state implicit pressure and discretization is done using
second order upwind scheme.
 The glass top surface is exposed to solar irradiation, for the glass the thermal conductivity is 1.14 and
specific heat is taken as 750 .
 The analysis is carried out for 3 different times during the day and for six different inlet velocities.
 It was observed that Temperature differential between absorber plate and fluid keeps increasing with
increase in flow velocity.
Scope
Concentrating solar thermal is considered as one of the main options for renewable bulk electricity
production. It is expected for the next years a concentrating solar thermal development similar in
potential and magnitude to the wind power take-off recently experienced. Recent economic support
measures that have been considered in countries like Spain are going to make possible the first steps
for this concentrating solar thermal emerging business.
After going through the lit reviews, we will be performing the CFD analysis for a flat plate solar
collector with multiple U-bends with different nanofluids such as Fe3O4 and with varying flow rates
and finally we will compare the thermal efficiency of the nanofluids with a simple fluid system.
CAD Model
on
Autodesk
Fusion 360
Results
obtained on
Fluent
Streamlines are shown in the

figure.
Mathematic
al
modelling
T H E S E M AT H E M AT I C A L
E Q U AT I O N S O F
CONDUCTION,
R A D I AT I O N A N D T H E
FVM GEN EQN CAN BE
USED TO MODEL THE
SYSTEM.
References
[1]. M. asmare, "Design of cylindrical fixed dome bio digester in the condominium houses for cooking purpose
at dibiza site, east gojjam, ethiopia," american journal of energy engineering , pp. vol.
[2]. no. 1, 2014, pp. 16-22, february 20, 2014. 2. M. k. gebretsadik, "field based assessment on the performance
of house hold biogas plants in bishoftu area, ethiopia," meaza ketsela gebretsadik , mekele, 2012
[3]. Koteswararao B., k. radha krishna, p.vijay, n.raja surya. 2016. experimental analysis of solar panel
efficiency with different modes of cooling. international journal of engineering and technology, 8 (3), 1451-1456.
4. A. gupta, "design of solar assisted community biogas plant,“
[4] Selmi M, Marafi A, Al-Khawaja M. Performance prediction of a flatplate solar collector using CFD software.
In: Proceedings ofIMEC2004 international mechanical engineering conference, Kuwait,December 5–8, 2004.

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ME-423

A CFD Analysis of flat

 Material type for absorption.

 Flat plates are enclosed in a box with transparent plates.

Solar collection inside tubes filled with air.

Streamlines are shown in the

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