The effect of MoS2–Ag/ H2O hybrid nanofluid on improving the performance of a solar collector by placing wavy strips in the absorber tube

• Published in: Case studies in thermal engineering 2022-02, Vol.30, p.101760, Article 101760
• Main Authors: Sani, Fatemeh Harsij, Pourfallah, Mohsen, Gholinia, Mosayeb
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Heat transfer; Hybrid nanofluids; Parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC); Twisted strips
• ISSN: 2214-157X; 2214-157X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.csite.2022.101760

We studied the optimization of a linear parabolic solar collector with a twisted tape (strip) aimed at increasing heat transfer in this paper. This research contains three sections. The first section focuses on the geometric study of various tapes, including twisted strips, wavy strips, and plain strips with a rectangular cross-section. In the second section, we examined the tape with the best efficiency at four heights. Finally, we assessed the effect of the H2O–Ag/MoS2 hybrid nanofluid in the third section. To this end, we simulated the governing equations and nanofluid flow in the collector using the ANSYS-Fluent software by employing the K−ε RNG turbulence model. The results revealed that the use of the twisted strip model brings the highest efficiency rate than other modes. Accordingly, the heat transfer rate and the outlet temperature for the twisted strip with the highest height increase by 14.33% and 0.39%, respectively compared to the lower heights. Besides, the use of composite nanofluid with a 5% concentration in a twisted strip with a height of 40 mm provides the highest heat transfer rate. Also, the outlet temperature difference with the fluid inlet increases by 4.93% compared to lower concentrations.