Experimental Performance Investigation of a Nanofluid Based Parabolic Trough Concentrator in Malaysia

Abstract

Concentrating solar energy system is a potential
solar thermal technology and parabolic trough concentrators
(PTC) are becoming growingly popular. In this research, both
analytical and experimental analyses have been carried out to
examine and compare the effect of different operating
parameters on PTC performance. Water and water-carbon
nanotube (w-CNT) are used to explore the performance of PTC
system. The optimum receiver diameter is found 51.80 mm for
the maximum efficiency of the collector. Performance
optimization reveals that mass flow rate and concentration ratio
are the inducing parameters on the thermal efficiency and heat
removal factor. Investigations show improvement in heat transfer
for added nanoparticles. Heat transfer rate is better in laminar
flow than in turbulent flow. Experimental results show that with
water as heat transfer fluid (HTF), for every 1oC increase in
outlet temperature heat gain and thermal efficiency increase at
the rate of 0.02 kJ/s and 1.6% respectively. On the other hand,
for w-CNT as HTF, for every 100 W/m2
increase in irradiance,
heat gain augments at a rate of 0.23 kJ/s and thermal efficiency
upsurges by 7%. Flow rate of working fluids and solar irradiance
are found to have respective negative and positive impact on
thermal efficiency of the system. Findings of this research work
are vital in designing parabolic trough concentrator for
supplying industrial process heat (IPH) and running boilers in
thermal power plants