Nanofluid multi-morphology effect on dual-fluid sinusoidal-wavy grooved absorber tube parabolic trough solar collector performances enhancement based on experimental data

Abstract In the present research, forced convection heat transfer features of EG-water base boehmite alumina nanofluid in a dual-fluid Parabolic Trough Solar Collector (PTSC) equipped with corrugated/grooved absorber tube is studied. The control volume method using the SIMPLE algorithm is employed to solve the three-dimensional governing equations numerically. Optimization is carried out to access the optimum nanoparticle morphology considering the highest Performance Evaluation Criteria (PEC). Obtained results indicated that employing the multi-morphology nanofluids can lead to higher PEC. It is shown that the PEC of nanofluid containing cylindrical 20%:80% brick portion is the best among all the studied cases at the investigated Reynolds number. And this, although it is ranked the 2nd in terms of higher Nusselt number and lower friction factor. Although the nanofluid having cylindrical 100%:0% brick portion has the highest average Nusselt number and the nanofluid having cylindrical 0%:100% brick portion has the lowest friction factor. The energy efficiency value of PTSC using multi-morphology boehmite alumina/EG-water nanofluid having a volume fraction of 4% and cylindrical 20%:80% brick portion of non-spherical nanoparticle diameter with Reynolds number of 4000 is the highest value among all the other studied cases, and it is equal to 91.31%.