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Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy / Volume 2 / Issue 3 / REGULAR ARTICLES

J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 2, 033102 (2010); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3429737 (13 pages)

Nanofluid-based direct absorption solar collector

Todd P. Otanicar1, Patrick E. Phelan2, Ravi S. Prasher2, Gary Rosengarten3, and Robert A. Taylor2

1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California 90045, USA
2School of Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical and Materials Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
3School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia

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(Received 13 October 2009; accepted 23 April 2010; published online 26 May 2010)

Solar energy is one of the best sources of renewable energy with minimal environmental impact. Direct absorption solar collectors have been proposed for a variety of applications such as water heating; however the efficiency of these collectors is limited by the absorption properties of the working fluid, which is very poor for typical fluids used in solar collectors. It has been shown that mixing nanoparticles in a liquid (nanofluid) has a dramatic effect on the liquid thermophysical properties such as thermal conductivity. Nanoparticles also offer the potential of improving the radiative properties of liquids, leading to an increase in the efficiency of direct absorption solar collectors. Here we report on the experimental results on solar collectors based on nanofluids made from a variety of nanoparticles (carbon nanotubes, graphite, and silver). We demonstrate efficiency improvements of up to 5% in solar thermal collectors by utilizing nanofluids as the absorption mechanism. In addition the experimental data were compared with a numerical model of a solar collector with direct absorption nanofluids. The experimental and numerical results demonstrate an initial rapid increase in efficiency with volume fraction, followed by a leveling off in efficiency as volume fraction continues to increase.

© 2010 American Institute of Physics

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
  3. NUMERICAL MODEL
    1. Comparison of volumetric- and surface-based absorptions
    2. Numerical modeling of DASC
    3. Overall model heat transfer coefficient
    4. Inclusion of size effects
  4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
  5. CONCLUSIONS

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

absorption, carbon nanotubes, heat radiation, mixing, nanofluidics, nanoparticles, solar absorber-convertors, thermal conductivity, two-phase flow

PACS

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3429737

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1941-7012 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

For access to fully linked references, you need to log in.
    R. S. Prasher, J. Appl. Phys. 102, 074316 (2007)JAPIAU000102000007074316000001.

    S. L. Westcott, J. B. Jackson, C. Radloff, and N. Halas, Phys. Rev. B 66, 155431 (2002).


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