Thermal solar water heater with H2O-Al2O3 nano-fluid in forced convection: experimental investigation

Abstract

This paper describes laboratory experiments with a thermal solar water heater consisting of a flat-plate solar collector and helical coil heat exchanger using Al2O3 nano-particles dispersed in water as a working. The experiments were carried out for various nano-particle concentrations, from 0% to 3% (by volume), through forced convection cooling. The experiments were carried out under the climatic conditions of Tanta University, Egypt. The laboratory work has been carried out in actual thermal environment in August 2013. The experiments have an emphasis on the main parameters with impact on the water production temperature. These parameters include the solar radiation, the feed water mass flow rate and the nano-particle volume fraction. The main conclusion is that considerable improvement in the daily solar collector efficiency is obtained with increasing the nano-particle concentration up to 11% for concentration 3% with; this increase in efficiency is bounded by ±10% uncertainty. The outlet water temperature is increased with increasing of nano-particle concentration by 5.46% for concentration 2%. The helical heat exchanger effectiveness is increased by 4.25% for a concentration of 1% with ±13% uncertainty. The helical heat exchanger effectiveness and solar collector efficiency are increased with decreasing the working fluid mass flow rate.