Computational Analysis on the Effects of CuO-Water based Nanofluids on the Performance of Flat Plate Solar Collector

Objectives: In the present work, the effect of CuO-water based nanofluids on the performance of flat plate solar collector was studied using computational fluid dynamics. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The computational analysis was carried out for both water and nanofluids at varying mass flow rates of 0.00255 kg/sec, 0.0029 kg/sec and 0.00323 kg/ sec. Comsol 5.2 software has been used for the simulating the performance of solar collector. The performance of flat plate solar collector is evaluated in terms of outlet fluid temperature by providing various inlet parameters such as inlet fluid temperature, ambient temperature, inlet pressure, solar irradiance, etc. Findings: The study was conducted for two volume fraction of CuO as 0.1% and 0.2% in base fluids. It has been found that the efficiency of solar collector increases with the use of nanofluids in comparison with water as nanofluids have better thermal properties. Also the efficiency of collector increases with the increase in mass flow rate for both water and nanofluids as working fluids. The efficiency is found to be slightly higher when the volumetric concentration of nano particles in a base fluid is higher. The temperature difference between inlet and outlet decreases as the inlet temperature increases. The maximum efficiency was found to be 55.3% using water whereas the maximum efficiency with CuO-water nanofluids was 73.4%. The maximum efficiency increase is found to be 25.9% with the use of nanofluids in comparison to water at a mass flow rate of 0.00255 kg/sec. Application/Improvements: Nan fluids are highly useful as heat transfer fluids due to enhanced thermal properties. The application areas of nanofluids are power generation, heating, cooling, air-conditioning, ventilation, etc.