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Numerical analysis with experimental validation for thermal performance of flat plate solar water heater using CuO/distilled water nanofluid in closed loop

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Abstract

The thermal performance of a solar flat plate collector incorporating CuO nanofluid as a working medium was examined in the present study. The solar collector with two riser tubes was studied experimentally and the results compared with the numerical outcomes predicted using commercially available Ansys 19.0 software. The solar water heater was examined for water and CuO nanofluid with 0.2 wt% and 0.4 wt% for two different volume flow rates of 0.5 and 1 lit/min. The present study claims that the instantaneous thermal efficiency for 0.2 wt% and 0.4 wt% increased by 12.01 % and 7.56 %, respectively, compared to water as a working medium. The effect of CuO/distilled water nanofluid on the collector's efficiency was also numerically studied using a two-phase CFD model. It is observed that the CFD and experimental results show good agreement with each other, with a maximum error of 5.84 % and 4.29 % for the nanofluid and water as working fluids, respectively.

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Abbreviations

Q :

Useful heat gain

ṁ w :

Mass flow rate of working fluid

T o :

Outlet temperature

T i :

Inlet temperature

A :

Area of collector

F R :

Heat removal factor

G T :

Global radiation

U L :

Overall heat loss coefficient

T amb :

Ambient air temperature

η i :

Instantaneous efficiency

τα :

Product of absorptivity and transmissivity

R 2 :

Correlation coefficient

u :

Uncertainty parameter

o :

Outlet

i :

Inlet

amb :

Ambient

w :

Working fluid

W :

Wind

η O :

Overall efficiency

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Acknowledgments

The authors are highly thankful for the Department of Mechanical Engineering, NIT Jamshedpur for helping make this research work completed successfully.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jamshedpur, 834101, India

    Helal Ahmad Farhan, Sukanta Nayak,  Sanjay & Manikant Paswan

Authors
  1. Helal Ahmad Farhan
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  2. Sukanta Nayak
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  3. Sanjay
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  4. Manikant Paswan
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Correspondence to Helal Ahmad Farhan.

Additional information

Helal Ahmad Farhan is research scholar at NIT Jamshedpur India who completed Master’s from NIT Jamshedpur. His research area is nanofluid application for solar thermal applications.

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Farhan, H.A., Nayak, S., Sanjay et al. Numerical analysis with experimental validation for thermal performance of flat plate solar water heater using CuO/distilled water nanofluid in closed loop. J Mech Sci Technol 37, 2649–2656 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-023-0438-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-023-0438-1

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