Effects of flow regime and geometric parameters on the performance of a parabolic trough solar collector using nanofluid

Abstract

The present paper investigates the optimum results on the performance of a parabolic trough solar collector using (3%) CuO-water nanofluid. The single-phase model based on a three-dimensional CFD method is used to model and numerically study the heat transfer behavior and fluid flow under a turbulent regime. Effects of various parameters, including different inlet Reynolds numbers (50000 ≤ R_e ≤ 250000), pipe length (0,25 m ≤ L ≤ 8 m) and pipe inner diameter (di = 60 mm, 66 mm, 72 mm, 78 mm, 82 mm, 86 mm) on the thermal and hydraulic efficiency of a parabolic trough solar collector are studied and discussed.

Keywords:

• Inner diameter pipe
• nanofluids
• pipe length
• Reynolds number, solar parabolic trough collector, thermal-hydraulic enhancement