Improving the thermal-hydraulic performance of parabolic solar collectors using absorber tubes equipped with perforated twisted tape containing nanofluid

The thermal and hydraulic efficiency of a parabolic trough solar collector is investigated in this study. The collector absorber tube is equipped with twisted tape with circular holes containing water-copper oxide nanofluid with three nanoparticles volume fractions of 1%, 2% and 4%. In three modes (d/W = 0.5, 0.7, 0.9), circular holes are constructed for the ratio of the circle's diameter to the twisted tape's breadth. All turbulent flow simulations were done using the SIMPLEC algorithm, FVM and RNG k-epsilon model in three Reynolds numbers as 10,000, 20,000 and 30,000. Studies have shown inserting twisted tape with a circular hole increases the pressure drop and the heat transfer rate compared to a pipe without twisted tape. The highest coefficient of thermal performance occurs in Reylond number of 10,000 and a nanoparticles volume fraction of 4%. The findings indicate that using nanoparticles improves the solar collector's energy and exergy efficiency. As a result, the best collector performance was obtained when using nanofluids with an nanoparticles volume fraction of 4%.

Automated summary

This study investigates the thermal and hydraulic efficiency of a parabolic trough solar collector using water-copper oxide nanofluid with different nanoparticles volume fractions. The results show that inserting twisted tape with circular holes can increase the pressure drop and heat transfer rate, and the best performance is achieved when using nanofluids with a nanoparticles volume fraction of 4%.