Experimental Study For The Effect Of Using Nano-Fluid On Heat Transfer Through The Flat Plate Solar Collector

Abstract

The aim of this Paper is studying experimentally the effect of utilizing (Al2O3/water) Nano-fluids as the factor of heat transfer on performance of the flatplate solar collector. The project’s work focuses on the process of transferring energy from the solar collector to the fluid that passes through the tubes. This is done first by using water as a basic agent fluid and then by using Nano-fluids as a working fluid.This study was experimentally using manufactured solar collectors. Experimental tests consist of [a solar collector, unit control, a working fluid system, and measuring devices (thermometers, LM35 Temp. sensor, flow rate meter, Solenoid valve and solar meter)] Sensors and measuring devices were connected to the Arduino as a control system, linked to a personal computer, and using the Labview program to take the results and export them to Excel. Experiments were conducted in Iraq - Babilon Governorate, AL-Shomali City with the latitude of 32.4° by using (Al2O3-water and TiO2-water) Nano-fluid as a working fluids, used the volume fraction as (0.3 and 0.6) % and a particle size is 50 nm with working fluid flow rate (1.50) L/min. Experimental results shows that’s a maximum output and inlet temperature variance is obtained (0.6 vol. %) Nanofluid for Al2O3/water is (14.6 C) at flow rate: 1.5 L/m Whoever in the case of water, the maximum temperature difference was at the outlet (10.2 0 C) at flow rate :1.5 L/m. The Collector efficiency enhancement of 0.6% vol. for (Al2O3/water) Nano-fluids are (20.5 %. Also, the results show, the enhancement in a thermal conductivity with an addition small size from the (Al2O3) nanoparticle with 0.6% vol. to the water increasing by (8.34) %.All experimental results were showed that a degree of heat coming out of the solar system increases when water is used with Nano-particles, especially when concentrated 0.6% vol. Also, Al2O3 shows high heat transfer compared to pure water, this lead to improve the performance of the solar fat-plate collector. Where its value exceeded the value of energy using water by a percentage 10.15%