Experimental Performance Evaluation of a Parabolic Solar Dish Collector with Nanofluid

Abstract

The experimental performance of a parabolic solar dish collector is investigated in this paper. The collector is located at Karunya University, Coimbatore (Longitude 76{\textdegree} 59{\textasciiacutex} and Latitude 11{\textdegree} 00{\textasciiacutex}) Tamil Nadu. The diameter of the collector is 1180 mm with the depth of 310 mm. The diameter of the absorber which is made up of copper is about 75 mm and height is 200 mm for a concentration ratio of 10. The performance of the collector is evaluated without and with nanoparticles, under various operating conditions. It is observed that, without nanoparticles, the temperature of the water in the storage tank increased from 35 to 85 {\textdegree}C. When aluminium oxide nanoparticles (0.01% volume concentration) are used, the temperature increased up to 90 {\textdegree}C. The efficiency of the collector is found to be higher by about 10% when nanoparticles are used.