ENHANCEMENT AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THERMAL BEHAVIOUR OF HEAT PIPE BASED SOLAR ABSORBER BY USING CuO NANOFLUID

Abstract

Technological growth in thermal science found that the awareness of solar thermal energy improved widely in various applications and spotted issues on conventional flat plate solar collectors operating with water fluid: lower thermal efficiency, limited thermal performance during low sunlight, and unavoidable heat loss for extended plate surface. This research attempts to enhance the thermal performance of solar collectors modified with heat pipe solar absorber (HPSA) evaluated by 0.010, 0.015, and 0.02 volume fractions of CuO nanofluid at 18 Lpm. The effect of CuO on varied flow rate on temperature gain, heat transfer coefficient, and thermal efficiency of HPSA is experimentally studied, and its findings are compared with water fluid. The HPSA operates with 0.015 volume CuO nanofluid with a higher rate of flow, proving better thermal performance and offering a maximum temperature gain of 68 ºC with a better heat transfer coefficient of 81.5W/m2K results enhanced thermal efficiency of 85.2%, which are higher than the water fluid operated HPSA system. An optimum operating parameter of HPSA is suggested for heat exchanger applications.