Thermal effectiveness of solar collector using Graphene nanostructures suspended in ethylene glycol–water mixtures

Abstract

Flat plate solar collectors (FPSCs) are the most often used as solar collectors due to their easiness of installation and usage. The current research investigates the energy efficiency of FPSC using different mass concentration with varied base fluids containing Graphene nanofluids (T-Gr). Mass concentration of 0.1%-wt., 0.075%-wt., 0.050%-wt. and 0.025%-wt. were mixed with ethylene glycol (EG) and distilled water (DW) in different rations. The operating conditions were volumetric flowrate (1.5, 1 and 0.5) LPM 50 °C-input fluid temperature and 800 W/m2-global solar irradiation. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) were used to synthesize the thermally treated nanomaterial. The theoretical investigation indicated that using T-Gr nanosuspensions increased the FPSC efficiency in comparison with the host fluid for all examined mass concentrations and volumetric flowrates. In quantitative terms, the maximum thermal effectiveness improvement for the EG, (DW:70 + EG:30) and DW:EG (DW:50 + EG:50) and using flowrates of (1.5, 1 and 0.5) LPM were 12.54%, 12.46% and 12.48%. In addition, the research results pointed that the essential parameters (i.e., loss energy (FRUL)) and gain energy (FR (τα)) of the T-Gr nanofluids were increased significantly.