A two-phase closed thermosyphon operated with nanofluids for solar energy collectors: Thermodynamic modeling and entropy generation analysis

Two-Phase Closed Thermosyphons (TPCTs) is a high-efficiency heat transfer technology being widely utilized in the fields of built and solar energy exploitations. In present work, a 2-D steady-state model is innovatively proposed to investigate thermal performance and flow dynamics of a single TPCT containing nanofluids. Conservation equations for mass, momentum, and energy were fully solved by the dichotomy algorithm. The effects of input powers, nanoparticles materials (Al2O3, Fe2O3 and Cu), and concentration levels (phi = 0-12 wt%) on the thermodynamics and entropy generation of the thermosyphon were numerically investigated and the results were evaluated through those from the pure water. A substantial change in the liquid film thickness, flow velocity profile, interfacial shear force, local heat transfer coefficient, temperature distribution, entropy generation rate and thermal resistance were subsequently obtained when using a nanofluid. Our numerical results revealed that nanofluids in thermosyphon could effectively enhance thermal performance by decreasing the evaporator temperature, thereby reducing overall entropy generation by about 41%, 32% and 29% for Cu, Fe2O3 and Al2O3 in comparison with pure water, respectively. Additionally, entropy generation significantly decays when nanoparticle concentration levels promote. Numerical results further indicate that the flow resistance of working fluid increases, maximum friction entropy generation increases by approximately 36.37%, 15.15%, and 9.09% for Cu, Fe2O3, Al2O3 of phi = 9 wt%, respectively. Moreover, the existence of an optimum concentration level for nanoparticles in maximizing the heat transfer limit was theoretically achieved for all nanofluids. Current results agreed well with experimental data within average deviation being no more than 10%. In conclusions, results suggest that TPCT-solar collect using nanofluid has a low simple payback period to absorb solar radiation to convert thermal energy compared to the conventional one charged with pure water.