The impact of using a turbulator at the nanofluid flow inlet to cool a solar panel in the presence of phase change materials using artificial intelligence

Abstract

Due to the importance of renewable energies in providing energy for the future of human beings, a simulation is performed in this paper on the nanofluid (NFD) flow inside a U-shaped tube placed under a solar panel (SPL). The tube is placed under the panel inside the enclosure containing phase change material (PCM). Alumina-water NFD and an organic PCM are used in this study. A turbulator (TBR) is utilized to improve the heat transfer (HTF) between the NFD flow and the SPL. This study is unsteady and is carried out at different Reynolds numbers (Res) to examine the effect of the TBR. The finite element method (FEM) is employed for the simulations and temperature-dependent relationships are used for the NFD flow. Finally, the best conditions are evaluated using artificial intelligence. The results of this study demonstrated that the use of a TBR causes the panel temperature (TPL) to reduce and the complete melting time of the PCM to enhance. The increment in Re entailed a reduction in the melting process of PCM and the TPL. The enhancement of Re increased the value of the HTF coefficient. Besides, the use of TBR enhanced the HTF coefficient. The minimum amounts of TPL and pressure drop correspond to the case when Re = 211 and the TBR is employed.