Influence of nanofluids on the efficiency of Flat-Plate Solar Collectors (FPSC)

A numerical investigation is performed using finite volume method to study the laminar heat transfer in a three-dimensional flat-plate solar collector using different nanofluids as working fluids. Three nanofluids with different types of nanoparticles (Ag, MWCNT and Al₂O₃ dispersed in water) with 1-2 wt% volume fractions are analyzed. A constant heat flux, equivalent to solar radiation absorbed by the collector, is applied at the top surface of the absorber plate. In this study, several parameters including boundary conditions (different volume flow rates, different fluid inlet temperatures and different solar irradiance at Skudai, Malaysia), different types of nanoparticles, and different solar collector tilt angles are investigated to identify their effects on the heat transfer performance of FPSC. The numerical results reveal that the three types of nanofluid enhance the thermal performance of solar collector compared to pure water and FPSC with Ag nanofluid has the best thermal performance enhancement. For all the cases, the collector efficiency increased with the increase of volume flow rate while fluid outlet temperature decreased. It is found that FPSC with tilt angle of 10° and fluid inlet temperature of 301.15 K has the best thermal performance.